Infinite Stratos Beyond the Black
by zerosaber0
Summary: Finally finished. Holy crap, I just realized this isn't a fanfiction, it's a fricking novel in the IS universe...Damn I spent so much time on this. This is about two  OC  students, unnoticed by the anime, and how they affect the story from the background.
1. Chapter 1  Filling in the Plot holes

IS: Filling in the plot holes

Chapter 1

Author's Note: Hello and thanks for taking the time to read this 12 chapter long epic. Little backstory for you guys, this is a present to somebody. A little while ago, I made this mistake of showing my friend a piece of the light novel I was working on back in college. Fortunately, she liked it. Unfortunately, she liked it so much that she tried to commission one from me. As a total pushover for women, I told her that I couldn't write a light novel for her, but I can write you some stories every once in a while. So then she suggested writing a fanfiction for her using one of her original characters from a comic she wanted to make. I buckled and wrote this.

Now, first and foremost I dislike writing original characters for fanfiction. I find it incredibly hard to get them away from Mary Sue or Boring Invincible Hero tropes so I hope this attempt doesn't make them Sue-y. Oink.

Secondly, this fanfiction is meant to be read either after the same numbered episode, or concurrently. Basically, each chapter is sort of an expanded view (or another viewpoint from the OC of each episode). I like to call it plausible reality. I think that a lot of what happens in the anime is incredibly contrived and wouldn't happen unless Lady Luck herself was in love with Ichika (but then again which lady isn't?). It takes the events of Infinite Stratos the anime as full canon, mainly because I can't read the Japanese light novels, nor can I make sense of the parts of the 6th that Baka-Tsuki translated. However, via viewpoint of the OC I attempted to justify or at least explain these events. Those that know the official media will probably know the reasons behind these events, but as I said I don't know Japanese. I'll use the IS wikia, Wikipedia page, and TVTropes websites as reference as closely as possible, but if I get anything wrong, or if anything is contradicted by the anime, please let me know so I can fix it.

Finally, this chapter is the present to that girl, the other chapters are me taking this premise and running with it. Before I give it to her, I'd like to get a bit of feedback from the community on my writing style, as well as some impressions of the story itself. I don't want to give her something she'll get bored of halfway in. Judging from the reviews of my favorite epics, the majority of the community can give some great tips and advice for aspiring writers.

I hope you find this tale as fun to read as it was for me to write.

Author's other note FROM THE FUTURE!: Ate is tagalog for "Big Sister", like Oneechan and the like. Can't believe I didn't mention that sooner.

* * *

><p>Story Start<p>

* * *

><p>Huge. That's the first thought I had after disembarking the monorail. I wanted to stop and admire the size of the building in front of me, but I was immediately shoved forward by a herd of young women in white blazers with long sleeves, neckties of various colors, and their luggage. With no desire to get trampled beneath their feet, I stumbledhobbled diagonally towards the edges of the mob, collapsing with relief as I escaped the mass of white. I was careful to fall onto my luggage, as to avoid getting dirt on my own white blazer, blue necktie, and black trousers. I sucked in air at a slow pace, breathing with my gut to use the full capacity of my lungs to obtain oxygen. A practice I adopted after reading an article in my old health class, I found it also helped me relax, calming me down much faster than a cool drink of water would. However, as soon as I caught my breath, I heard a voice call out, "Ate!" With a sigh, I plunged back into the thinning herd of women and grabbed the hand of a small girl crouched down and using her own luggage as a shield. She immediately uncurled and followed me back to where I deposited my own luggage, in the middle of the monorail platform yet off to the side. Still holding on to her hand, I used the other to upright my luggage, brush off the dirt and extend its handle. I squeezed the girl's hand and told her, "Nefer, we should probably get to our room. Class will start soon."

Nefer squeezed back, somehow twisted her arm around mine and replied, "Sure, Ate. Let's go."

We entered the dormitories located directly under the classrooms we'd be using for our studies. "1026, according to the acceptance letter," I told Nefer. Nodding her head, she pulled out the keycard we would need to open the door, but try as we might, we couldn't locate a slot to swipe it through. Another girl with a long ponytail, probably noticing our trouble, approached us from Nefer's blind side. A horribly bashful girl, as soon as she noticed her approach, she jumped behind me and decided to use me as a shield. I would compliment her on her awareness, if she noticed the ponytail girl before she tapped Nefer's shoulder. And if she didn't yelp while hiding behind me, I'd even pat her head. Instead I added more things to a mental list to tease her about behind closed doors.

"All you need to do is hold the card up to the knob. The door will open automatically," she informed me in formal Japanese.

"Ah, thank you very much," I replied back in stuttering, broken Japanese.

"I see you aren't a Japanese person," the ponytailed girl noticed, switching to more elementary words. "My name is Shinonono Houki. You can call me Houki."

Remembering a bit of Japanese culture, I managed to say, "Nice to meet you, Houki-san. I'm Sever Panganiban. This girl back here," with a thumb behind my back,"is Nefer. Say 'Hello,' Nefer." I felt the wind from her shy wave over my shoulder. I thought to myself that I should really introduce her to some people later.

"I'd like to chat more, but we have class soon. Don't be late," the pony-tailed girl named Houki reminded me. After pointing out the elevator at the end of the hallway, she bowed us a farewell and waited for the next car.

I opened the door as she taught me and placed our luggage on the beds, then grabbed Nefer's hand to lead her towards the elevator. I saw the elevator doors open, saw Houki enter them, saw her give a small cat-like smile, and then saw the elevators close on our faces. Hmm, she's a bit meaner than I thought.

"Houki..." A masculine voice behind me droned in a tired manner. As before, Nefer jumped behind me as I faced the owner of that low-pitched voice. A tall man wearing a white blazer with the buttons reversed from my own extended his hand to me. "Sorry about that, it seems you suffered from her little prank as well." At least, judging from what I could understand, that's what he said. He spoke fluent Japanese at a speed I could barely follow. Nefer's small, breathless whisper from behind told me that he's apologizing for Houki's actions.

With my own meager understanding of the language, I told him, "It's fine. I have friends back home who do things like that to me." With those last words, I attempted to shake his hand when a hard poke in the side told me how Nefer felt about that half-lie. A friendly hand shake turned into a partial Hokey-Pokey as I danced around, trying to get away from Nefer's Finger of Judgment. The man chuckled, withdrew his hand and introduced himself as Orimura Ichika. Since he didn't offer his first name, I addressed him as Orimura-san and bade him goodbye as the elevator car returned.

"It seems like you're in my year," Orimura called out, placing his hand on the door so it couldn't shut. "We should go together to the classrooms."

"Hmm, sure I suppose, but then who would go with the Houki that came down on the other side?" Orimura spun around and peered across the long hallway while I calmly pushed the door close button. Orimura spun back to me just in time to see the despondent, please-forgive-me look on my face, reinforced by the pleading pyramid of hands pose as the doors closed.

"Thanks," a voice significantly louder than that small whisper in the hallway spoke up. "I'm not quite so good with dealing with men." The elevator we rode was a quite spacious cargo elevator, easily able to hold at least 20 adults at once. With the man safely on the dorm floor, Nefer gave me a quick hug and relaxed at my side, waiting to reach the 6th floor where our 4 first-year classrooms and labs were set up. We did a few I checked my watch, noting that we had ample time to make our way to our classes before the bell rung. Once the elevator doors opened, Nefer latched onto my hand with an extremely strong grip. Failing to hide my discomfort, I turned to meet Nefer's eyes and voice my displeasure. Nefer's eyes refused to meet mine while the rest of her deliberately tried to impede my advancement towards my classroom. With a twist of my hand, I escaped her vice-like grip and forcefully pushed her to her seat in class 1-2. With gentle pressure, I forced her to sit and messed with her short hair.

"I'll come get you after our classes and we can tour the campus for the rest of the afternoon. Until then, be good." I turned on her desk for her then left for my own classroom.

* * *

><p>Nefer was the only person who knew me here at the Infinite Stratos Academy. I'm sure I'm the only person she knew here as well. Nefer had always been a very private girl, burying her nose in books and studying with various tutors, all older men and women. As such, she could never relate nor even converse with people her own age, until she met me. Ever since then, she's stuck to me like glue, although judging from the earlier two encounters she's getting used to other people. I assume the shock of getting separated from me in that monorail full of people before we arrived forced her to be a little bit braver. I don't fault her for shielding herself with the briefcase though; that was a better option than getting trampled by all those excited girls.<p>

Thanks to Nefer's actions, I entered Class 1-1 with minutes to spare and sat at my assigned desk behind Orimura, the person before me according to roll. At least, I attempted to but that desk was occupied by a cute, bespectacled girl with a serious gaze affixed on the only male in the class. I sighed, tapped Orimura on the shoulder as a greeting, and then took the plastic triangle that served as my identification from the desk I sacrificed to Glasses-Girl's romantic exploits. I tapped Glasses-Girl's shoulder, whose owner spent a microsecond acknowledging my action, pulling out her own triangle and then re-engaging her staring contest with the back of Orimura's head. Noticing something familiar about his head, I knelt down to eye-level with Glasses-Girl and looked at where she was looking. Unlike my desk usurper, I allowed my eyes to unfocus and slowly rose. About halfway back to my upright position, for a fleeting instant I noticed the optical illusion the swirl of his hair made. I smiled, wondering if anyone else noticed the joke Orimura's last barber inscribed on his head. Walking to the only empty desk in the room, which just so happened to be furthest from the Y chromosome carrier, I inserted the ID triangle into the vacant cavity in the corner. I powered up the desk's display and used my precious few minutes before class to review the history of the academy.

Infinite Stratos (IS) was created 10 years prior to the creating of this reference. (At this point, I looked for a year of copyright or year of writing, but found none. Apparently, the exact date of the creation of IS is a guarded secret). Shortly revealed to the world afterward, representatives of the countries of the world quickly convened in Alaska to create a treaty relegating the use of IS. This speed was necessary due to the fact that IS are basically powered armor with enough strength to make the country's owner the world superpower. This was proven with the "White Knight Incident" where over 2000 missiles were launched at a small island in the Pacific. The first IS codenamed "White Knight" used its particle cannon and broadsword to disable, detonate, or destroy each missile, regardless of its armed status. Just as suddenly as it appeared, it disappeared, leaving a feeling of safety in the hearts of the common people, and a feeling of fear in the public leaders. After meeting in Alaska, the representatives of the world forged the Alaska Pact with four specific terms:

_IS are prohibited from being employed in any war. IS are allowed to be armed as a deterrent for war.

_Any research and development for IS is to be made available to all countries, including any field testing of said R&D.

_R&D done by IS Academy (Term 4) are allowed to be kept confidential.

_Trade of IS cores is strictly prohibited under any circumstances.

Japan will be responsible for the creation and maintenance of an IS pilot training facility and is required to allow pilot candidates of any foreign country, provided they are endorsed by their legitimate government body or foundation.

As alluded to in the corollary to Term 2, IS Academy is the IS pilot training facility Japan created to educate IS Pilots. Due to the majority of pilots with high sync rates being teenagers, IS Academy was structured after a typical Japanese High School or College, my understanding of them being fairly similar to each other. Pilot candidates of an older age were given their own program, tailored to be similar to US college programs.

* * *

><p>BRINGGG!<p>

The bell rung and I looked up from my desk to witness a cute woman in her early 20's at least enter the room and introduce herself as "Yamada Maya", the deputy homeroom teacher. The board behind her displayed her name in Kanji, while my screen displayed her name and position in Kanji, Hiragana, and English. I suppressed a giggle when I realized her name in Hiragana read the same forwards and backwards. After congratulating our enrollment to the academy, she proceeded to introduce us to how our life over the next three years was going to be. As explained to us in the material accompanying our acceptance letters, the school would be our home for the next three years unless we withdraw or were dismissed for whatever reason. We would stay on campus for the 6 days a week of classes, and be allowed to go the port city on Sundays. From the port city, we are allowed to visit anywhere we would like, as long as we receive permission from the Academy and return before midnight. As for meals, the school would provide, however the kitchens will be open to students who would like to prepare their own food for whatever reason. Apparently she was waiting for a reaction, because she hesitated before asking for a roll call, a bit of wind out of her sail.

Never really a social type of person, I ignored the introductions made, only focusing on the roll number so I knew when to introduce myself. After number 14, I waited for number 15 to take their turn, but was surprised when that person didn't respond. "Ichika-kun. Orimura Ichika-kun!" Yamada called out to the tall man sitting in the seat in front of my former one.

"H-Hai!" the spaced-out boy stuttered.

"Sorry for shouting," Yamada apologized, then leaned over to a more comfortable position, resting both of her forearms onto the lectern. "But we started with 'A', and now we're on 'O'. Could you introduce yourself?" I think she asked.

Rising to his full height, he started off with a shaky, "I'm Orimura Ichika. Nice to meet you all!" A simple greeting, and my signal to start once he sat down. However, he hesitated and looked at the eager eyes of his classmates, expecting a more robust introduction. He took a last ditch glance at Houki, who I just realized sat at the far left corner of the class, two columns from Orimura. When denied, he let his head fall forward in depression. I could almost see the gears in his head as he tried to come up with a suitable introduction that would satiate the expectant girls. The girls all leaned in their seats to better hear what he was about to say. He took a deep breath and forcefully informed us, "That's all."

Simultaneously, the entire class of students lost their balance, the most extreme case falling on the floor face down. I picked myself off the floor and hurriedly rubbed the red off my face so that I could introduce myself when an older woman in black dropped a heavy fist onto the back of Orimura's head. "Ow...Ugh, Chifuyu-nee!"

The fist returned with improved aim, hitting Orimura in the soft of his skull. "Call me Orimura-sensei at school."

Yamada spoke up, "Is your meeting over, Sensei?"

"Yea, Yamada-kun. Sorry, I left the greeting to you." Orimura-sensei took her place at the head of the class placed a hand on her hip and introduced herself, "Everyone! I am your homeroom teacher, Orimura Chifuyu. My job is to make you first-years useful in a year."

A loud cheer arouse from my class: a loud, high-pitched, obnoxious cheer I should be used to by now instead penetrated my throbbing head and drowned out all other sound. I think I heard "Chifuyu-sama!" multiple times, all said by loud, high pitched voices, although I'm not quite too sure of it. I forced myself to look up and saw Orimura-sensei rest an exasperated head on her uplifted hand. I'm sure she was lamenting the idiotic idolization of my class. Sure enough, the cheers grew louder as I stuffed my fingers in my ears.

Shortly after the cheering died down, I recovered enough to witness Orimura get slammed into his desk for mistakenly calling her his big sister again. I overheard the two girls in front of me gossip in soft whispers, "You think that's why he can use IS? Because he's Orimura-sensei's brother?"

The girl returned her whisper with, "I don't know, but he's the only man in the world that can use an IS."

For whatever reason, only women could use IS. At first, rich and powerful men attempted to obtain and use the powerful devices. The former was easy, considering their influence, however when they discovered their inability to use it, they handed it down to their daughters, wives, mistresses, or whoever they thought could use it. Amazingly, only the women were able to move the machines, whereas the teenaged girls were able to move them without any effort at all. It was theorized that the best IS pilots would be teenaged girls, although there were a few oddballs that had high sync rates even as middle aged women. However, the single unifying fact was that IS could only be piloted by women. With this discovery, countries urged their women to birth girls, in an effort to get more IS pilots. In addition to this, schools started focusing on more practical matters for the females, such as physics, math, and such, at an earlier age to prepare them for IS Academy. Males were allowed to attend the same classes, but did not get the same support females got and typically underachieved academically. It seemed Orimura was of this category.

Orimura-sensei explained to us that her lesson plan consisted of learning the basics within six months, then practical training for the next six, vacation for the last week of each month. Short and simple for a syllabus; until I realized that the basics consisted of the giant paperweight weighing down the luggage in my dorm.

Yamada started explaining the history of IS to us, but a lot of it was almost word for word from the data display on my desk. I tuned out a lot of what she said; taking notes with my stylus when she said something not written down, or was driven off track by an errant question.

After the lecture, homeroom had a 10 minute break before starting out first formal class. I waded through a deep pool of women of different classes and years, all obviously looking for a glance of at least one of the Orimura siblings. As for me, I had a different goal in mind. I somehow wedged my way into class 1-2 to see how Nefer was doing. She sat the same way as I left her. Arms down, stiff as a board, and looking straight ahead. I glanced down at her desk and noticed that she at least took copious notes. I marveled at the organization of her notes, and how she even managed to make the stylus write different colors to code different notes a certain subject. She finally noticed my presence and after looking at my smile to verify who I was, she grabbed me bodily and threw her face into my bosom. She didn't say anything, and she didn't weep, so I laid my arms around her and praised her with, "Good girl." After spending a good amount of time in my pillows, she let go and told me she was fine. I left the room and headed to the vending machine near the elevators. I pulled out my ID triangle as well as Nefer's triangle, pocketed during her little episode. Inserting it into the triangle cavity, I ordered a cafe au lait with Nefer's ID and an orange soda for me. I ducked into 1-2 to give Nefer her favorite drink and her ID back, giving me a grateful nod for the former and an angry glare for the latter. Seconds before the sensei arrived, I took my seat and nodded my drink to her. She approved with a slight tilt of the head.

The first class was a basic terminology course to get us used to the various words used to describe IS. It consisted of memory drills and sample readings of the various research our home countries performed on IS. The only highlight of the day came when Orimura vindicated my opinion of him and admitted to understanding nothing. As expected, Orimura "accidentally" threw his textbook away as soon as he got it and read nothing. As if expecting the deluge of girls offering Orimura their textbooks to read with him, Orimura-sensei informed her brother he would get a copy and that he was to read it in a week. His complaints regarding the short timeframe were quickly silenced with sensei's raised fist. The class continued until lunch recess, and by then everyone had their fill of IS.

I left the room much easier than before. It seemed the novelty of the only male student in school quickly faded after witnessing his academic ineptitude. Grabbing my ID, I met Nefer outside her classroom, a welcome change from having to actually enter her class. Linking arms, we walked down to the cafeteria, located at ground level near the first-year dorms. Using the IDs we ordered lunch, refreshingly prepared by cooks and servers. It was more like a self-serve bar, but we could see exactly how the food was prepared and how the dishes were cleaned. I could even see students in the back preparing their own food at smaller cooking stations, equipped with small sinks, burners, and even an oven. I ordered a bowl of Pho, which they had as a special today, while Nefer ordered a pork cutlet with noodles (katsudon they called it). Looking at the dishes, we concluded with a heavy sigh they were basically the same thing with different noodles and meat. I made it a resolution to visit the kitchen later tonight and make something a bit more distinct. We dutifully finished off our meals, which weren't that bad, thanked the cook with a handshake and smile (or at least I did, Nefer hid behind me as always) and got him to give me access to the kitchen's stock of food with the condition I call him when I finish cooking. Apparently, he was the one to fight for the individual kitchen stations to be able to taste the foods of different cultures. As such, he kept the kitchen stocked with all sorts of meats and veggies, and would even send out for exotic ingredients when needed.

Armed with a goal, I returned back to my class after dropping off Nefer at her door. It seemed she was getting more and more used to me not being there, though I worried for her social life. From what I could tell, she hasn't attempted to make any friends, and she had this aura of animosity that repelled the less adventurous girls of the class; which seemed to be all of them at a glance. Well, I couldn't exactly stay long enough to introduce people to her, so I left her there with a smile, entered my own classroom and relaxed in my seat.

After a few more hours of lessons I slept through, I was awoken with my own love tap to the back of my head. Apparently Orimura-sensei doesn't forget to display her affection for her students, just delays them until an appropriate time. In this case, it was after the other students left early due to Sensei's accelerated teaching pace.

"Sever," Orimura-sensei read off my ID triangle, "Come with me."

"Is this about my acceptance into IS academy?" I inquired.

"Yes." She gave a small half-smile eerily similar to Houki's earlier. "We'll meet you in R&D room 12."

"Fine," I responded. "Let me type up a quick message to my roommate."

Accepting my request with a curt nod, she spun on her heel and walked out the door near me, obviously heading for R&D 12. As for me, I turned to my desk and typed out: _Nefer, I have some IS Academy business to take care of. Can you get back to the dorm and unpack everything for me? I slept through classes and I'm going to have to make up quite a bit._ Hopefully, she thought I just got in trouble instead of why I'm really breaking my promise to get her after class.

* * *

><p>Due to Alaska Pact Term 4, Japan was responsible for the creation and maintenance of IS Academy, and forced to open the doors to any eligible pilot candidate from any nation. That also meant that Japan was financially responsible for this global IS school, something that the Japanese knew was unfair. Therefore IS Academy played a different tactic. By introducing tariffs and fees for visitors to Japan, they were able to mitigate the cost of IS Academy a bit. However, by using carefully worded statements, they were able to push off more than ¾ of the maintenance cost of IS Academy onto the United Nations and Nations of the world. Statements like "in the case of minors staying 1 year or longer" or "in the case of multiple candidates from foreign countries" or some such. These fees dissuaded countries from sending so many candidates that the school over inflated, or sending in a bunch of students to tip the balance of the student body nationality majority. Due to these fees, IS Academy not only easily controlled the number of students enrolled, but controlled the culture of the student body. This year, more than 95% of all the students were Japanese. Candidates from other countries were forced to become the best of the best, while the countries themselves were forced to allocate trillions of yen for the training of these IS Pilots.<p>

I was not able to obtain these trillions of yen to be able to attend IS Academy. However, taking the acceptance test was free, and so I took it, testing high on xtradimensional physics as well as information technology. Noting the ridiculous scores IS Academy offered my admittance with full lodging under three caveats.

I was to keep a record of my daily happenings, calling to attention unusual events in the day. After reviewing my miserable attempt of a report, I was allowed to write it in the form of a story, provided I write it in a manner a complete novice would be able to follow.

I stopped in front of the door to R&D 12. With a wave of my ID, it granted me access into the IS repair bay. Racks of mass-produced IS with the express purpose of training surrounded me, dim yellow lights highlighting a path through the maze of machina. I followed the path of light to a laboratory table, Orimura-sensei gesturing to lie down. With a sigh, I patted down the sheet of paper that served for sanitation, laid down and allowed the NO2 to bring me to a sweet unconsciousness.

I was to allow IS Academy to test new technology on me. This technology was not meant to cause me harm or shorten my life, and will be reversed at the end of my three years. As this technology falls under the Alaska Pact's Term 2 Corollary, I was not to share knowledge of this caveat nor the research I was assisting with unless declassified by Orimura-sensei.

* * *

><p>I awoke in the infirmary, feeling a bit light-headed. Orimura-sensei sat near me, and waited patiently for my head to clear.<p>

"So should I expect something like this regularly?" I asked Sensei.

"No," her voice stern, but soft. "We will contact you whenever a new experiment is ready to be tested. We may also call you in to assist with calculation regarding xtradimensional space however, so review that whenever you get a bit of time. Now, allow me to explain the surgery you just received. Put on this choker."

From her pocket, she pulled a box containing a red pendant hanging from a silken ribbon. I took the jewelry and placed it around my neck, the choker formed comfortably around my throat. I had no problems breathing, and the pendant seemed to be attracted to my chest. I breathed experimentally to see if the weight would bother me, then hopped around to see if I could dislodge it from its current position. The pendant wouldn't move.

"The pendant is attracted to the implants we grafted to your nervous system. The pendant is a key to your implants that will allow you to access and use the IS Artificial Reality display, even without an IS. If you touch your thumb to the tips of your fingers in succession from your pinky to your index, you can pull up an Artificial Reality display that only you can see, similar to the IS AR displays. You can open up to four different displays by repeating the motion, and dismiss them by touching your thumb to the relevant fingertip twice. You'll see what I mean after you train with it later. Other functions will be controlled exactly as how you will control an IS AR system, even following vocal commands. Also, you have full permission to modify and create new programs and macros as long as you submit them to us before use. As long as you are on campus, the technology will be powered wirelessly, but if you are off campus, you will have only 24 hours before the system enters emergency standby."

"Yes, Sensei." I tested the system by touching the fingers on my right hand as she instructed. A translucent display appeared before my eyes, shading a small window of my vision in pale blue. I turned my head, the window moving with me. I focused my vision on Orimura-sensei, and was rewarded with the abbreviated personal profile IS Academy kept on her. To maintain the screen's focus, I curled my middle finger, then tried to use my pinky to scroll down Sensei's bio before she grabbed me by the pendant, lifting it off my chest and forcibly shutting down my interface.

"I see you can't wait to start experimenting with it," Sensei observed, a twisted smile appearing on her face. She released the pendant, letting if fall perfectly back into its original position. She picked up a fairly large stack of papers form behind her and dumped them in my lap. "This is homework regarding the IS AR system for the next three months, as well as the work you slept through today. I expect this all to be finished by this week. Also, there will be a test on IS history tomorrow. Needless to say, if you come in with that pendant on you'll be zero'd immediately and on the wrong end of my fist." The smile appeared in full force, which I ignored in favor of her tightly clenched fist.

"Yes, ma'am." I brought up the AR screen again, careful not to focus on Sensei. "Time," I ordered, and the screen displayed the date and time to the second. "Sensei, if that's all, may I be allowed to get some dinner?" Sensei gave me an irritated look as I realized I spoke in English accidentally. Luckily, the display showed me a translation for what I said, and with a high degree of accuracy as my mediocre studies could tell. I repeated what I said in Japanese, to which Sensei remarked, "Looks like the translation function works fine. Although you may not want to depend on it. You actually said, 'May I have you for dinner?'" That clarification made me flush with red. Sensei left me to my shame, while I desperately tried to calm down my heart. After taking about 10 minutes to do so, I headed to my dorm to pick up Nefer and attempt to make up with her.

* * *

><p>Waaaaaaaahhhhh!<p>

I grabbed the door frame as if my life depended on it as my tiny roommate latched onto my waist and started thrashing about. The girls on my floor silently witnessed this display of immaturity while I tried not to let my face color like before. All of a sudden Orimura exited the dorm next to me, followed by multiple piercing strikes _through the door by a wooden sword_ and the craziest show of agility I've ever seen a man perform. The girls switched their attention to Orimura, giving me an opportunity to knee Nefer in the stomach, bow out of the room gracefully, and shut the door behind me: another thing to apologize to Nefer for later. I observed Orimura shamelessly beg to be let back in, ending the night's shenanigans. The girls all left for their own dorms, save three who unabashedly used the door's recent ventilation to peep inside. Too tired to be polite, but curious enough to keep my voice light, I asked the three, "What the hell just happened?"

"Apparently, Orimura's shacked up with Shinonono, and she's having the typical tsundere response," the tallest girl answered with a knowing smile.

"At the very least she looks pissed," added the middle girl.

"Yea," said the shortest girl unhelpfully. I guess she didn't want to be left out.

"Huh," I responded, and then appropriated my own peep hole.

I was just in time to watch Houki stutter out, "D-d-d-d-did you ask for this rooming arrangement? To share a room with me?"

Orimura condescendingly replied, "That's stupid."

I immediately brought my face into my palm, prompting the other three voyeurs to shush me into silence. Looking back through the hole, I saw Houki in kendo garb attempting to cleave Orimura in two, Orimura just barely able to hold the blade between his hands. She started muttering under her breath something I couldn't make out, when the girls decided to save him. They opened the door a smidgen and called in, "Ah, we found Shinonono-san!"

"Don't go jump on him by yourself", the middle girl added.

Houki gasped and retreated back to the far side of the room.

"Oh, it's over," the middle girl continued.

"It looked like things were going really well," the tall girl remarked, before Houki crossed the room and shut the door in their faces. Not like it deterred the girls in the slightest, they simply reassumed their original peeping positions. I peeped into my own dorm to check in on Nefer. She was struggling valiantly to recover her breath, so I looked back into Orimura and Houki's room. Orimura crossed the room with surprising speed and grabbed the other sword in Houki's bag. Upon seeing the hitchhiker on the sword, the five of us save Orimura gasped simultaneously. Odd-man-out Orimura did the stupidest thing I could think of at the moment and started examining the brassiere hanging off the tip of the sword. Before blood could be spilled, I shooed the three voyeurs back to their dorms and barged into the room, just in time to see Houki fling her sword into Orimura's face. Orimura went down fast, luckily falling onto his back. After checking for injuries, I assisted Houki in moving Orimura's unconscious body onto his bed. Before leaving, I gave a Houki a friendly smile and told her, "Give me a call if you need any help transporting the wounded, okay? I'm just next door. You know what, here's my number. Nice to meet you, neighbor!"

After exchanging phone numbers with the violent feisty girl, I finally went back to my own room and checked Nefer for any injuries. I didn't exactly aim to harm, but I did knock the wind out of her. As she wheezed in and out, I sighed and punched up a recipe for pad thai on my AR display. I studied the recipe as best I could while I waited for Nefer to recover, then walked to the kitchen with Nefer twisting my arms painfully behind my back.

As expected, Nefer had forgiven me now that her stomach was full. On a side note, the cook now considered me a master chef, due to the ease I had in finding and using the ingredients. This ease came from me using the AR displays to gauge every step of the dish. I felt a bit guilty for using this experimental system for cooking so simple a dish, but a hungry, angry Nefer was a serious threat to my mental stability. However, a full Nefer was a happy, competent Nefer, and so reinforced that thought by helping me with the studies I slept through, even though she was in a different class. At the end of the impromptu study session, I felt like I actually understood everything we went over. Her task complete, Nefer sleepily changed into her PJs and crawled into her bed. I poured myself a cup of coffee and started working on my other homework, coding a few more macros and programs into my AR interface.

* * *

><p>The next day, I made sure to come to class without my choker on. Instead, I kept it on my wrist like an oversized charm. With an approving smile, Orimura-sensei started the test, which I came out feeling really good about. We broke for lunch, myself picking up Nefer and heading to the cafeteria. We grabbed a decidedly mediocre lunch (the cook shooting me a guilty look) and returned to the classroom after working off the calories a bit by jogging. On the way back, I stopped by the bathroom to double-check my appearance in the middle. My tall figure stared back at me, examining my black trousers, white blazer and blue necktie, which I adjusted to look straight and crisp instead of droopy. I combed my fingers through my short black hair, stopping at the start of my braided ponytail. At this point, my hair abruptly switched from black to orange, the result of a botched bleach job before I arrived at the Academy. I got some weird looks, but that problem was solved when I stuck the ponytail into the back of my blazer, the high collar hiding the color shift. To finish up my beautification, I removed my choker from my wrist and returned it to its proper location.<p>

After finishing the once over, I entered through the back door of my class in time to hear Orimura-sensei announce the inter-class match taking place in two weeks. She went on to explain that not only would the class representative compete in the match, but would also attend student council meetings and committee meetings. In short, a normal class rep who happens to compete in a combat tournament between all of the classes. As expected, some random girl I didn't recognize nominated Orimura the younger. This was quickly seconded, ignoring Orimura's confused grunt. Taking it in stride, Orimura-sensei asked for other nominations. Orimura started to contest the nomination when a haughty voice from the back yelled, "I can't accept this!"

She spoke with a weird form of Japanese. I pulled an AR display up and used a series of taps to silently load a translator program to translate the spoken words into terms I could understand.

"I don't accept an election like that!" the blonde girl continued. "It would be a shame for a man to represent our class. Are you telling me that I, Cecilia Alcott, must live in shame for a year?"

I opened a new display and focused on the whining girl. Curling my finger to lock the display in front of me, I started reading her profile:

Cecilia Alcott, 15 years old, IS Representative Cadet of England

_Personal IS: Blue Tears

_Current equipment: Starlight Mark III Laser Rifle

_Blue Tears UAV Package

I dismissed the profile and display, and rejoined the conversation. I took a quick look at the log on the translator and saw that Cecilia insulted Japan by calling it an underdeveloped country. I snickered quietly, thinking "You silly girl, Japan made IS. They're more developed than your country by far."

Orimura retorted, "England doesn't have much to brag about either. How many years have you won the world's most disgusting food championship?"

With a gasp full of indignation, Cecilia blurted out, "We have plenty of delicious foods! Do you dare insult my nation?"

Orimura stayed silent, a good call on his part.

The silence hung in the air for an uncomfortably long time. It was thankfully broken with Cecilia's demand, "I challenge you to a duel!"

Orimura quickly responded, "Sure. It's easier than debating this." I'm sure he was waiting for this challenge.

Cecilia continued her demand, "If you lose to me on purpose, I'll make you my servant. No, my slave, actually."

Orimura offered, "How much of a handicap?"

This statement confused the heck out of the class. Cecilia seemed to take it as a form of surrender, asking Orimura, "Oh, you're begging already?"

"No, I'm wondering how much of a handicap I should take," he answered honestly.

This drew polite laughter from the class, as if he made a funny joke.

A few statements I couldn't hear from my place back in the class were made, but it seemed the Orimura understood that the duel would be settled with IS.

"Truthfully, I'm debating if _I_ should take some handicap for your sake or not," Cecilia taunted. "Japanese men are funny."

The glasses-girl who took my seat advised the lone man, "Orimura-kun, it's not too late. Ask for a handicap." Remembering her profile, I nodded my head in agreement.

Orimura looked the girl straight in the eyes and firmly told her, "A man can't take back what he said." Turning back to Cecilia, he said, "I don't need any."

Glasses-girl responded, "You're underestimating her too much."

Orimura-sensei, probably finished having fun at her brother's expense, finally took charge by confirming, "Looks like it's settled then. The duel will take place next Monday at the third arena. Orimura and Alcott, prepare yourselves."


	2. Chapter 2 Less Canon More Fiction

IS Ch.2 – Less Canon, More Fiction

Author's Note:

Well, that was a fun experiment. It's really hard to turn an anime into a bunch of words. It felt like I was trying to write a book report on the movie of a book. Wait…IS started out as a series of light novels so…..dammit.

Ag, fail...I just realized that in this episode they pan over the entire class. I really don't want to rewrite the story for that small detail, so please just gloss over it, pretty please ^v^

Whatever, I said I was going to do this, so I shall. Doesn't hurt that IS is pretty good anyways; although I figure it isn't mainstream enough to attract a whole lot of attention. That's fine though, I only need the attention of one person. I'll continue to put my all into this, and hopefully finish before season two. Hope you enjoy reading this!

* * *

><p>Chapter Start<p>

* * *

><p>After that declaration of war, Orimura-sensei took a bit of time to calm down the class. Still tired from the long night I spent yesterday taking care of my make-up work, I leaned forward onto my arms, trying my best to keep from sleeping in class again. When I heard what Orimura said next, for a second I thought I really was dreaming: "Orimura, regarding your IS. It will require time to make it operational. There are no unassigned units, so the school will order one exclusively for your use."<p>

Excited whispers filled the room, ones that I didn't pay attention to in favor of using my AR system to look up Orimura's data.

_Orimura Ichika, 15 years old, Japan

_Personal IS: Requested by IS Academy

_Current equipment: Classified (Alaska Pact II,1)

_Psychological Profile: Classified (Alaska Pact II,1)

I dismissed the screen, as the database didn't have anymore information regarding him. Noticing the classified status, I made a mental note to ask Orimura-sensei if her brother was also assisting with IS Research. Then I used the AR system to make an actual note with reminder to ask Orimura-sensei about that. I realized this was going to take some time to get used to.

A sharp, haughty laugh penetrated my thoughts, drawing my attention from the AR display to the blonde English Representative Cecilia Alcott standing directly in front of Orimura..

"I'm glad to hear the news," she declared (translated by my faithful translator program). "This Class Representative Cup! Who will win is obvious, but it would be unfair for me to be in my personal unit and you in a training unit."

I looked past the blonde towards the teachers. Yamada-sensei was patiently waiting to restart the class. Orimura-sensei, after catching my eye, walked out of the classroom. I met Yamada's eyes in turn, and she used hers to motion towards the door. With everyone's attention on the two class representative candidates, I slipped out the back door, almost crashing into Orimura-sensei. She sidestepped me smoothly and continued walking to the vending machines at the end of the corridor. I followed her, crossing an item off my memo list.

"Sensei," I started, "why is Orimura's info classified?"

"Hmmm, that'll be a problem," Sensei acknowledged. "We'll declassify all student records on file to you."

"Thanks, but..." I began, but Sensei gave a green tea and started heading back to class.

Taking the hint, I followed Sensei back to class in step. I mirrored my previous movement, entering through the back door as quietly as possible. A few heads turned to regard me, but I shook my tea back as an excuse. Like a phantom, Sensei resumed her position back in class as if she never left at all, just as a girl was explaining to Orimura something about how IS cores were distributed. Without missing a beat, Orimura-sensei added onto the explanation, "Fundamentally speaking, personal IS are given only to those who work for nations or belong to companies. But given your unique status, a personal IS will be prepared in the interest of data collection. Do you understand your position?"

"Kind of..." came her brother's reply. Sensei's eyes hardened for the slimmest margin of a second, before a girl asked a certain question that bothered me ever since the IS history course yesterday.

"Ano, Sensei. Is Shinonono-san related to Dr. Shinonono?"

Even though she introduced herself to me as Houki, she also told me her full name, Shinonono Houki. Curious, I pulled up her info on my display.

_Shinonono Houki, 15 years old, Japan

_Personal IS: Uchigane Training IS 243 (shared)

_Current Equipment: Standard Training Katana

_Standard Training Rifle

_Psychological Profile: Not available.

At least it didn't say "classified" this time, but I wondered when Sensei would actually get around to lifting the info restriction on me. A quick check on Orimura told me my settings still haven't changed, so I dismissed the AR.

As for the question regarding the two Shinonono's relationship, Sensei confirmed, "Yes. Shinonono is her younger sister."

Once again, the room erupted in chaos. The girlish screams once again reverberated painfully in my head. I did my best to muffle the sound with my hands, but it was ineffective. Before too long thankfully, I was saved with Houki's declaration.

"I have nothing to do with that person!" She stated loudly. The chatter immediately stopped. She hesitated a bit before continuing, "I am not that person. There is nothing I can tell you."

This caused the class to quietly converse with each other in low murmurs. Having none of that nonsense, Sensei ordered Yamada in a stern voice, "Yamada-sensei, the class, please." I noticed that Sensei took a tone she never used before, and even called Yamada with a title, instead of the "kun" suffix she usually used. She probably had some business of her own regarding the two Shinonono, but that was none of my business. I dropped that thought like a hammer and spent more attention than necessary taking in Yamada's lecture. After this lecture, I thought that this was the first time I ever felt lucky to be in IS Academy.

According to Yamada, IS covered the pilots body with a force field known as Absolute Defense. Like its name infers, Absolute Defense protects the pilots against all manners of conventional and energy-based weaponry. However, with the advancements in IS technology, it was possibly to either bypass or outright overpower AD enough to cause pain and even damage to the pilots. Stressing that point, she also mentioned that IS had a "consciousness" of its own. The more time a pilot spends in an IS, the more the IS learns how that person thinks. In layman's terms, this was known as a sync rate. To assist us in getting used to this concept, Yamada advised us to think of an IS as a partner, rather than a tool. Right on cue, someone asked a question that turned an enlightening topic on IS to a distraction so lame that I walked out of the room:

"Question: When you say partner, do you mean like lovers?"

My last glimpse of the room before I left was a flustered Yamada, hugging herself with little to no doubt thinking back on her own experience with IS.

* * *

><p>I gulped the green tea Sensei got for me in one shot. After that, I hurried as fast as I could to the kitchen and nipped a bit of cooking brandy. I definitely needed something with alcohol in it to take away the disturbing images in my head regarding a lover's relationship with an IS. Another first, this time my first time regretting going to a country that actively enforced the age limit for drinking.<p>

After being reprimanded by the chef (and being forgiven by him when I promised to make him something with it later), I returned to class, passing by a smirking Orimura-sensei. I knew I was going to get hit with extra homework again.

I stopped by Nefer's class and asked her, "You know any good dishes that involve brandy?" Some of her classmates perked up at the idea, but I ignored them and waited for Nefer's answer.

"You can make a pretty good baste for poultry with it, but you don't use enough to get drunk. Why?"

I told her what happened in class, and she rested her hand on my head. Of course, to allow her to do so I had to kneel. "Jeez, Ate. I don't know why relationships get you like that. You definitely overreacted. I'm surprised no one noticed. Did you have a bad one before I came along?"

Letting her mess with my short hair, I defended myself with, "It's not that I had a bad relationship. It's just I'm really disappointed with the girls in my class. With he development of IS, women should be more independent and free. They should be practical and pragmatic and strong. But these girls are all romance and so...girly, you know?"

"That's even lamer than the reason you stormed out in the first place," Nefer admonished me. "Even as a strong, confident woman [I snickered at this, earning a smack on the head from Nefer], I would still want to fall in love and have a man to stay by my side at all times." She moved her hands to mine, and cradled them tenderly.

I smiled at her and said, "I'm sure you'll find some nice guy."

Nefer scowled at me. "Or woman?" I ventured.

Nefer scowled deeper and turned red. She shoved my hands back at me. I shrugged helplessly and started to leave. Nefer called to my back, "I'll write a recipe down, so you cook it for dinner. And it better be good!"

I answered back, "Sure." I added a thumbs up above my head and returned to class.

* * *

><p>Class continued without incident, save for the extra work Sensei sent to me privately over campus e-mail. At lunch, I stayed a bit behind to organize the extra homework and copy down the notes I missed out on while I was drinking my imagination away. Orimura invited the class to go eat lunch with him and Houki, to which the most energetic trio of girls in the class responded quickly. Orimura remarked to Houki, "It's nice to get along as classmates, right? Don't you agree?"<p>

I couldn't hear, but it seemed that Houki rejected his invitation. Orimura attempted to drag her out of her chair, but only succeeded in making Houki verbally reject him.

"Hey! I said I won't go!" Houki reiterated.

"What? You don't wanna walk? Do you need a piggyback ride?" Orimura teased.

Distraught by the implications, Houki panicked and shoulder charged Orimura to the ground with a loud "Let go!". I thought to myself, "how violent feisty".

It seemed like Orimura didn't mind, as he got up calmly and started bantering with Houki. The energy trio backed away from Orimura and Houki with an apologetic "On second thought, I think we'll pass."

Taking the opportunity, I asked the girls if they wanted to eat with me instead. They accepted, obviously regretting not eating with Orimura but not wanting to be rude and deny my request. I quickly finished organizing my notes and such, when a familiar but unexpected face found me near the exit.

"Hey Nefer, I see you've found my class."

In response, she puffed up her cheeks and marched to the elevator. I shrugged and faced the trio to ask, "Shall we go?"

Off put by Nefer's actions, the girls apologized, citing that they already packed a lunch. I smiled understandingly, saying "It's ok. Maybe some other time. If you'll excuse me, I got some damage control to take care of."

I turned around and headed out the door, getting about a quarter of the way down the corridor when I heard footsteps behind me following my rhythm. I looked back and saw the short girl with long sleeves had followed me with a carefree smile.

I smiled a happier smile back at her and led her to the elevators, narrowly missing Nefer's solitary car as she stuck her tongue at me through the closing doors.

"So who was that?" the sleepy-looking girl inquired. "She seems to like you a lot."

I smiled at her and answered, "That's Nefer. She's my roommate."

"Ne-fe-ru," the girl sounded out. "Ne-fe-ru. Neferu." she smiled that sleepy smile at the sound of the odd sounding name.

"By the way, I'm Sever. It's nice to meet you." I bowed slightly as we waited for another car.

Again, she sounded out the odd sounding name: "Se-be-ru. Se-be-ru. Seberu." This one was a bit harder for her to pronounce due to there being no "V" sound in Japanese.

"I'm Nohotoke Honne. You can call me Honne-chan or Nohohon if you like." The girl introduced herself with a matching bow, just as the other elevator opened up. We pushed our way into the occupied elevator. An uncomfortable short time that extended into an eternity finally ended when the elevator stopped on the ground floor. I asked Nohotoke, "What shall we eat for lunch?"

As I asked this, I saw Nefer look in my direction, get up and walk in the opposite direction of the classrooms, instead heading for the dorms. I guessed she was still mad about the teasing in public, so I decided to prepare my heart for whatever prank she felt would make us even.

"Hmmm, is Neferu-san your girlfriend?" Honne asked.

I raised a skeptical eyebrow at her. "You do know I'm a girl?" I cautiously questioned back.

"Love takes all forms! And they're all beautiful!" the girl declared, her sleepy eyes fully opened and shining. "It can even overcome the boundaries of sex, age, and race!"

"That's probably true," I acquiesced. I figured it would be poor manners to disagree with her when she's so passionate about the subject. "Well, at the very least she's an important person to me."

The excited girl examined me carefully. Seemingly satisfied, she resumed her carefree persona, and chose the lunch set special with her ID. "Today, we got a fresh batch of fish," she informed me. She started to drool and wiped it off with her long sleeves.

"It's just fish and rice," I condescendingly read off the board. I still pushed the button for the sushi set, guessing what was going to happen next.

Her eyes once again opened up, the passion of love replaced with the ardor of pride. With a finger towards the chef in the back working diligently, she declared "Fish is a Japanese's lifeblood! I'll prove that to you!" She began dictating what sides to add to the set for both our meals. Without any room to get a word in, I pulled up Honne's info.

_Nohotoke Honne, 15 years old, Japan

_Personal IS: Uchigane Training IS 240 (shared)

_Current Equipment: Standard Training Katana

_Standard Training Rifle

_Psychological Profile: Energetic, Quick to Respond to Challenges

Well, duh, I thought to myself as Honne led me to her favorite table in the back.

* * *

><p>I returned to class without checking on Nefer in the dorm. I was going to finish lunch early to see what was wrong with her, but I got so engrossed with talking about food with Honne that before I knew it, lunch break was over. Gulping the rest down, we rushed back to the elevators, barely making it in time to squeeze between an uncountable amount of girls. More uncomfortable moments passed until the elevator doors opened again at our floor. The entire mass of students purged out of the elevator as fast as possible, while Honne and I caught our breath off to the side. I grabbed my ID and got an orange soda, while Honne pulled out a thermos. We clinked beverages and took deep swigs. We continued into class, barely making it in before the bell rang. With a sharp glare, Orimura-sensei motioned us to our seats while Yamada started the next lecture.<p>

Today, Yamada decided to continue the lecture on IS cores that Orimura and that one girl started earlier in the morning. In short, there are only 467 IS cores in the world, distributed by their creator Shinonono Tabane. Per the Alaska Pact, the exact distribution of cores was not made public, however it was fairly obvious that Japan held the majority of the cores for the purpose of training. These cores were in the mass-produced IS Uchigane, which students of the Academy shared between them. These cores were also special in that they were able to sync to multiple pilots at the expense of being relatively weak compared to Personal IS. As a side-note, Yamada mentioned that the Academy also had foreign units, such as the Raphael Revive from France. The foreign units were given to outstanding students, due to the fact they couldn't sync with as many multiple students like the Uchigane.

A great deal more information later, Yamada finally stopped her lecture and ended class for the day. Since I didn't receive any orders to report to the R&D labs, I decided to check out the clubs the Academy offered. I stopped by to pick up Nefer, who seemed to be a great deal happier. She even skipped all the way to the elevator, dragging me all the way, and shoved to the front of the crowd waiting for the elevator. She stopped at the car, and gave an incredibly evil grin. The girls all backed away as Nefer forced me into the car. The girls gave me a pitying look as I waved back sadly through the closing door. As the elevator descended, my mood followed, while Nefer just kept grinning and grinning that evil grin of hers. She led me to our dorm, opening the door and inviting me in, saying, "You must be really tired. I know you stayed up last night doing homework. You should take a quick nap."

"Uh...no thanks Nefer," I replied, not able to look her in the eyes. "Um...I was thinking I was going to go...see...clubs...I guess."

"Oh no, no, no. You should take a nap, at least. The clubs will still be there when you wake up." With that, she moved as fast as lightning behind me to shut the door. She ushered me into bed, uniform and all, and shoved me face up onto my bed sheets.

Immediately, I felt a weird stickiness on my back, arms, and legs. I attempted to raise my body off the bed, but found I was glued almost entirely to my bed. Luckily, I didn't feel anything in my hair as it was tucked in my clothes. Nefer removed her blazer and straddled my captured body. Clad in her skirt and blouse, she grabbed my blazer collar and drew close to my face.

"Who was that girl who you went to lunch with?" She whispered huskily.

"A classmate." I kept my answers short and succinct. When Nefer got like this, the best strategy was to keep my answers short so I wouldn't babble and to be honest so I wouldn't get nervous. Any sign of weakness would be pounced upon by Nefer-mon Crazy Mode.

"And what did you do with that classmate?" her whispers drew ever slowly to my ear.

"We had lunch. She introduced me to something worthwhile to eat in the cafeteria." Telling her this much was against my strategy for dealing with Nefer when she's this way, but she accelerated her tactics compared to last time. I needed to enact Contingency Plan B.

"Oh. Then why didn't you finish quickly? I was waiting for you to come get me in the dorm before class." She opened her mouth, preparing to bite me with all her strength. I judged the distance, then started Contingency Plan B.

I lifted my head, the only part I could move, and latched onto Nefer's nose with my teeth through my lips. Then I twisted my head to the opposite side as fast as I could in that odd position. This hurt Nefer slightly, and she recoiled back into an upright position. I used the slack in my stuck blazer to wrench my arms out of the sleeves, then forced the buttons to pop off. With the blazer opened, I sat up quickly and embraced Nefer as hard as I could before she could react.

"I'm sorry I left you all alone, Nefer." I held her head to my shoulder with my tight hug. She responded by crying silently into my blouse. I let her cry until she fell asleep. Slipping off my trousers, I carried her to her own bed. I changed her clothes into comfortable pajamas and pulled her covers over her. Then, I sanitized her arm, found a vein and injected her with the anxiety medication her doctor prescribed her. Originally, it was to be taken orally, but she would find new ways of getting rid of the tablets. We consulted a specialist and he recommended an IV to be administered when she was asleep. Yesterday, I forgot to administer her medication, so I made a solemn vow to never forget again.

I used Nefer's cell to call housekeeping, and asked them to replace my mattress as well as to get me a new uniform with trousers instead of a skirt. Using Nefer's ID, I authorized the purchase of the new clothes and mattress. They told me they would replace them before dinner and that I should go do something fun while I wait. I asked them to go ahead anyways, but to just be quiet as I was to borrow my roommate's bed.

I left a note to Nefer letting her know exactly what I did and that I would grab her for dinner around 7 pm. I slipped off what was left of my uniform and put on a sports bra, tank-top, and track pants. After thinking it over, I also put on a pair of work fingerless gloves and well used jika-tabi. I headed out to the stadium, where the majority of the athletic clubs practiced. One of the first clubs I visited was the Kendo club. While there, I witnessed Orimura get knocked down repeatedly by Houki, all for the sake of learning to use IS apparently. While the first few times were funny, it quickly lost its humor as Houki demonstrated again and again her superiority over Orimura's lack of skill.

I stopped by the Soccer club, and was even allowed to sub in for the last period of the practice game. I slipped on a jersey, and was lucky enough to score a goal with heavy assistance from the senior members. Unfortunately, my team lost as I could not protect the ball at all. At the end of the game, they invited me into the club, but I told them I wanted to check out some of the others first. But, whenever I have time, I'd love to join them again.

Next on my tour was the Lacrosse club. Unfortunately, they were doing maintenance for their field and couldn't play, so they practice their scoops and throws. I watched for a bit and then continued to the Tennis club. Another game I wasn't to familiar with, I watched as the girls volleyed balls to each other. Another group was practicing serves, and they waved me over to try myself. All my shots ended up hitting everywhere except the rectangle they were supposed to. Frustrated, I curtly returned the racket to them and finally arrived at my main goal: the Cooking club. I would've have came here first, if the club didn't start until late. As expected, my friend the Chef was there and was the main advisor for the club. He greeted me with a hearty, "I was wondering when you'd get here!"

I smiled back and he and I spent the some time teaching the less experienced girls how to cook basic dishes like omelets. At about 6, I excused myself so that I could go complete my last objective. Unfortunately, I had to promise to come back at 7, so I sent Nefer an email to meet me at the cooking club around then.

* * *

><p>I arrived at the stadium, breathless after sprinting all the way back. I regained my stamina by inhaling deeply with my diaphragm, just as I did escaping from the trampling crowd of girls when I first arrive at IS Academy. The stadium's arena was a large circle surrounded by bleachers for the students to watch IS battles. There were four runways placed in the four cardinal directions for the IS to launch from. At the top of the north runway, there was a tower from where the teachers and support staff can monitor the battle. Between the North and East runways, there was a box for VIPs to watch the battles. As the battles they were invited to typically were in the morning, they sat facing away from the sun, while an awning protected their heads from Japan's harsh sunlight. I stood below the north runway, gaging the height of the wall with my eyes. They looked to be about 10 feet off the ground, relatively difficult but possibly for me to climb. I started a stopwatch program with my AR and ran towards the wall. I jumped as high as I could, then kicked off the wall for some extra height. I extended my left hand towards the inside edge, barely catching it by my fingertips. I reeled myself in, grabbing the top of the wall with my other hand and hoisting myself onto the 8 inch wide wall. I ran along it, crouched to avoid hitting my head on the low ceiling and with careful footsteps practiced with years of experience. I reached the bleachers and started vaulting up the 5 rows while running forward. Reaching the last bleacher, I started vaulting down the bleachers, only to return when I reached the bottom again. After returning to the top bleacher, I kicked off the top wall and vaulted over the awning near the west runway. I ran across the following roof and jumped onto the runway itself 10 feet below me. I absorbed the shock by rolling forward and reached the end of the runway. Instead of stopping, I did a long jump. I easily cleared the 30 or so feet to the low wall afterwards, partly in thanks to the fact it was about 5 feet lower than the runway. I absorbed this fall by coiling my body and stabilizing myself with my gloved hands. I continued this pattern of running to the bleachers, vaulting my way up and down, vaulting onto the next runway and long jumping down to the next wall until I reached the North runway once again. I finally stopped, collapsing on the sun-warmed metal while I struggled to catch my breath again. I checked my time: 25 minutes flat.<p>

My AR chirped me a message from Orimura-sensei: "That was an impressive run. The entire stadium staff stopped what they were doing to watch your performance. Unfortunately, we can't have you getting injured because of your thrill-seeking so your activity has been banned. Report to R&D 13 everyday at 5pm starting tomorrow. Dress comfortably." Included with the message was an attached video. I opened it and saw a recording of me racing around the stadium in alarmingly high resolution. If I squinted, I could even see my AR pendant, stubbornly staying in position despite my active movements. I turned towards the observation tower and bowed to them, imagining wild cheers and whistles coming form the staff. Leaving the stadium through the North runway's maintenance area, I returned to my dorm to find a new uniform folded on top of my new mattress. Nefer was nowhere to be seen, so I changed into my uniform and left to fulfill my obligations.

I returned to the Cooking club where the impromptu cooking class proudly displayed to me the fruits of their labor. Amongst the budding chefs, I found Nefer: her own dish golden yellow.

"Glad to see you're actually doing stuff, rather then just looking up recipes for me to try." I whispered to her.

"As the de facto president," the chef started, "I decided to wait for you to return so you could have first taste."

"Sorry," I apologized to the group for my lateness. "Orimura-sensei assigned me extra classes around this time due to my poor ability in studying," I lied through my teeth, remembering that anything regarding R&D was to be kept confidential from everyone. "But if I do well, I can probably get some days off to visit," I smiled.

Disappointed, the chef replied, "Well, it's better than nothing. At least these omelets came out real well! After teaching them to cook basic ones, I showed them how to put fillings in. Try them out, there are some interesting ones."

I went down the line, taking large bites out of everyones omelets, ranging from a twin-tailed girl's green onion omelette to Nefer's hotdog and marinara sauce concoction. That one actually turned out quite well to my disbelief. I ended up eating about a third of everyone's omelet, allowing the chef to take a bite as well and the girls themselves to finish it off for lunch. The chef brought out some other foods he prepared while teaching and we all had dinner together. Nefer sought out a seat near me and we all exchanged stories about cooking. I was glad that Nefer had started talking with other people and trying new things out. Even more so, this was her first time actually cooking and it came out real well. Normally, she just looked up stuff for me to cook and was really good at reciting recipes form memory. I rubbed her head affectionately and whispered, "Thanks" into her ear. She blushed cutely and started picking at her food.

* * *

><p>After dinner, Nefer and I excused ourselves to do homework. Just like before, somehow Nefer was able to help and sometimes even teach me some of the concepts in the extra homework I just keep receiving. Thanks to her, I got to sleep at an appreciable hour.<p>

The next day, I went to class bright and dandy, Nefer following behind me. She went to her own class after giving me a hug goodbye, and I slid into my seat at the back of the class. Yamada started a lecture on the IS AR. Smirking at Orimura-sensei, she gave me a matching smirk for an instant before adopting her normal stoic expression. Consequently, I tuned Yamada out and started working on the AR homework Orimura-sensei assigned me after the surgery. Being able to call it up at a moment's notice was a godsend, considering a majority of the work were practical exercises designed to get me used to all the different displays and functions the AR was capable of.

We eventually broke for lunch, and returned to the continuation of Yamada's lesson on AR. I returned to the continuation of my homework. The few things I couldn't practice were the enhanced senses that the IS AR gave the pilot. Through use of the IS sensors, the pilot's senses, touch, sight, sound, smell, and to a lesser extent taste, were all heightened. Sight was especially heightened, all the way to 360^2 degree vision. However, this data needs to be "translated" into something the human body was used to. The efficiency of this translation was directly related to the sync rate an IS had with a pilot. As I had no IS sensors, I had no way of trying this out for myself.

Class ended without me getting extra homework assigned as usual, so I killed time playing soccer while waiting for 5 to roll around. As always, Nefer came along, but was satisfied with watching from the sidelines. At 4:45 or so, I excused myself from the game and had Nefer return to the dorm.

"Please let me come with you," she begged. "I can help you study, like last night."

"Sorry, Nefer, but didn't you join the cooking club?" I rebutted. "I expect you to keep your responsibilities. Don't worry, I promise to eat whatever you make, even if it's horrible."

As expected, she walked off in a huff, slapping my shoulder expecting it to hurt. I set a reminder to administer her shot later tonight with my AR. I returned to the dorm and changed into clothes similar to what I wore during my performance at the stadium yesterday. I sprinted to R&D 13, barely making it as the clock hit 5. The door opened and I staggered into the dark room. A spotlight lit up a podium near me. With the new light source, I noticed a green button on it that seemed to scream "Push me!"

So I did.

All of the lights flared to life and I heard a low whirr rumbled through the floor. The sight before my rendered me breathless for quite a while. I didn't even realize I literally forgot to breath when Orimura-sensei slapped me on the back.

"What do you think?" she asked. "This facility is for you to work on your acrobatics. We've brought in a variety of gymnastics equipment for you to use and mounted them onto moveable platforms so that you can arrange them however you see fit. The floor is padded so you don't hurt yourself to badly, but we also have gravity manipulators installed that you can use. Everything is controlled by that console, although you should be able to connect to it through your AR. Everything running the Academy's OS and wireless connected to the Academy network can be hacked into and controlled by your specific AR system with relative ease. Theoretically, you should be able to hack other tech as well, but you'll have to figure out how to do that yourself. As for now, practice with this console and then you can play to your heart's content. Oh, also feel free to teach some of the other students to run. We'd like to have our students learn non-IS skills like yours. Call it a club if you like. I can serve as the advisor."

With that explanation, she left me alone with my new playground. I found balance beams of varying sizes and lengths, vaulting horses of various thicknesses and heights, parallel and unparallel bars, hanging rings, trapeze bars, and even springs. I rubbed my hands together in anticipation. I spent the entire two hours before dinner messing with the console, figuring out exactly how to operate it through AR, then coding specific patterns I wanted to run, followed by my magnum opus: a program that completely randomized the positions of the equipment, the level of the lights, and even the gravity manipulators (though I decided not to use this part of the program regularly). I ran the randomizer program, watching the equipment rotate and move to random positions like a drunken dance. The lights dimmed to a level where I could barely see the equipment. I planned a route in my head that would take me to every piece of equipment without touching the ground. Basically, this program was an epic version of "The Floor is Lava" game I used to play as a kid.

I took a runner's starting position and started the AR stopwatch. I sprinted and launched myself up using the first floor spring. I landed softly on the low balance beam and sprinted across it, vaulting over the first horse, landing on a piece of plastic I conveniently left near it and slid under the next horse. Disregarding the impossibility of repeating that stunt over real lava, I coiled on top of the plastic, jumping off to bounce of another spring and grab the hanging rings, almost missing them due to the forward momentum I originally had. Using the rings to bleed off that momentum, I lightly dropped onto the balance beam shaped like a right angle. I followed it to the parallel bars, which I grind-ed across with my jika-tabi. I jumped at the end to hit the trapeze, another tool to bleed off my momentum. I dropped lightly again onto a vaulting horse to turn 90 degrees toward the unparallel bars. I gaged the jump and grabbed the low one, swinging around to land cat-like on top of it, holding desperately to not tilt over and hang upside-down. In this position, I noticed that I basically ruined my jika-tabi with the grinding stunt and resolved to find a better shoe to use for that. I decided to have a bit of fun and swung down from my perch. I swung back and forth to obtain momentum and after a good amount of swings was finally able to swing over the bar. I lowered the gravity and launched myself high into the air. I had enough momentum to kick off the ceiling like a ninja and land easily on the soft mat 20 feet below me.

* * *

><p>I decided to go back to the dorm to recover from my adrenaline rush. Nefer arrived around dinner time and had me try her new creation, an omelet with rice and bacon. She said it was so I could have a full meal, all in one piece. It was a valiant effort, but it was so packed full of filler that it came apart in my hand.<p>

"It's a good idea, but if you want to do this, you'll have to use less of the fillings, and also make much smaller servings. The egg can only support so much weight, you know."

"Makes sense," she admitted. "But will it taste good?"

"Let's find out," I replied, grabbing a spoon from a drawer and scooping out a healthy amount of egg, rice, and bacon. "Tastes like an All-American Breakfast. Good job!" With that comment, I devoured the experiment, then patted my stomach.

"With this kind of practice, you'd be a good wife," I noted.

Nefer blushed hard. She dove into bed without removing her uniform and covered her head with her sheets. I chuckled and dove into tonight's assigned homework, the AR stuff saved for a later date. After I finished, I injected Nefer with her medication after she fell asleep, changed into my own PJ's, and had the best sleep I've had in ages.

* * *

><p>The days passed similarly to that day. I studied in class, ate lunch with Nefer or Honne (whom Nefer seemed to avoid whenever possible), killed time with the Soccer or Tennis club (after I gave them a second chance and learned to like it), then spent time until dinner messing with my playground, creating setups of different skill levels, waiting for the time I could formally introduce the Acrobatics Club to the Academy. Sunday came around and I spent that day visiting relatives on my Mother's side who lived in Japan. Nefer had her own relatives to visit and so we spent an uneventful but meaningful day reconnecting with family. And then Monday finally arrived in full battle regalia.<p>

Immediately in the morning, Orimura-sensei had us all go down to the arena. Cecilia went with one of her friends to the south runway while Orimura, Houki, Orimura-sensei, and Yamada headed North. After a few minutes of preparation, Cecilia launched into the air in her personal IS Blue Tears. I reconfirmed her data in my AR display.

_Cecilia Alcott, 15 years old, IS Representative Cadet of England

_Personal IS: Blue Tears

_Current equipment: Starlight Mark III Laser Rifle

_Blue Tears UAV Package

_Psychological Profile: Not available

Blue Tears was obviously a long-range attack type with that long rifle she carried. I didn't see any trace of a melee weapon, but I figured that the Blue Tears UAV would somehow counter anyone lucky enough to bypass that rifle. The IS itself was very blue, and looked like armor and wings to the blonde angel inside. I would probably call her an angel to her face if it wasn't for her annoying, haughty voice. The only part that wasn't armored was her torso and head, both protected by the IS Absolute Defense. As we learned in Yamada's lecture, AD is the main armor of an IS, thus the lack of a need for full coverage. The armor on her extremities and her wings were actually fragile in practice. They would probably break under their own weight if it weren't for the reinforcing steel inside them and the AD. The AD capacity was represented by units of shield energy. The more shield energy, the more AD you have, and the more attacks you could endure. Unfortunately, my AR couldn't give me these stats. Suddenly, I realized that the teachers were most likely observing and recording this fight like they did with my run, and were probably able to view the IS stats as well. I backed away from the class, activating my AR system. I hacked into the control system and streamed the feed from the arena camera to one of my available screens. I eventually found a stats screen for Blue Tears, but it only showed me visual gauges for ammo on shield energy, as well as the fact it was in standby mode.

Orimura suddenly launched from the North runway, coming to a clumsy stop about 20 feet away from Cecilia. Looking at the system, I realized that there was a camera watching Cecilia and one watching Orimura, as well as the primary feed that showed both. Using my last two screens, I streamed them all and relocated the windows into positions were I could keep track of all three simultaneously. My stats screen suddenly compacted, removing half of Blue Tears' stats screen and replacing it with Orimura's. According to the screen, it was called "Byakushi" but unfortunately I couldn't pull up a more detailed description as all my screens were being used. Byakushi was a dirty white, as if it was left in the closet for a long amount of time. If Blue Tears was a winged angel, then Byakushi was a winged machine. Except for his torso and headgear, Orimura's IS reminded me of the Gundam anime from long ago. They bantered for a bit, before an alert on the stats screen told me Blue Tears shifted to Shooting Mode.

Cecilia immediately shouldered her gun and fired down the barrel. Orimura blocked the shot, the energy sending him tumbling through the sky. He narrowly recovered from the spin, almost crashing onto the ground. He took off once more to the sky, narrowly evading sniper fire , reducing direct shots to glancing blows. The lasers were either absorbed by the shield the arena put up to protect the audience or detonated on contact with the ground.

Orimura pulled out a sword from xtradimensional space, another of the benefits of IS. He used it to actively block Cecilia's sniper fire that he couldn't evade, saving his AD from decreasing further. Suddenly, Cecilia launched her UAVs. The four autonomous options used a barrage of laser fire and high speed maneuvering to weave Orimura into a position that Cecilia took advantage of. She recalled the UAVs and shot her laser cannon at full charge. Amazingly, Orimura blocked it with the sword, then descended to ground level. Keeping the ground to his back in case of another UAV wave, he was able to close the distance between his speedy Byakushi and Cecilia's stationary Blue Tears. He launched himself directly upward from the ground at top speed. Cecilia reflexively backed away and launched her UAVs again. This time, Orimura was able to evade the option attacks, even destroying one as he flew past it. I noticed a gauge on Blue Tears' black out. Orimura seemed to be getting the upper hand, destroying UAVs left and right, even attempting a slice at Cecilia herself. After destroying the fourth, he charged at Cecilia. However Cecilia was ready, using the last two to launch powerful missiles at him. Heavy ordinance was much more destructive than lasers due to the fact they had mass. Shots from those would decrease his AD by quite a bit, and according to his gauges he had less than half left. He aborted the charged and took evasive measures, however the missiles proved just as agile as Orimura, following him like bloodhounds. After a last ditch loop, the missiles found their target and detonated with giant plumes of smoke.

I checked the stat screen to see how much energy Orimura had left. An alert screen told me that he had achieved "1st shift". Without windows to open, I was left in the dark wondering exactly what that was. I stared at the Orimura stream, just as the smoke started to dissipate. Flying proudly was a brilliant white Byakushi. It seemed that somehow achieving 1st shift detonated the missiles prematurely, sending shrapnel towards Orimura rather than the full force of the explosion. This was reflected by a loss in his AD gauge substantially less than a direct explosion.

The sword in his hand suddenly bisected. The blade folded to become a cross guard for a glowing energy blade almost as long as Byakushi was tall. Cecilia launched a barrage of missiles from her remaining Blue Tears, only to have them cut down by Byakushi's enhanced speed and energy sword. Orimura charged a final time, Cecilia to startled to evade when all of a sudden his energy blade went out, right in front of Cecilia's head. Confused, I looked to his stats and noticed his AD was completely exhausted.

"End of match," a loudspeaker announced. "Winner: Cecilia Alcott."

IS matches ended when an IS's AD reached 0. At this point, the AD fails completely and the Academy deems it too dangerous to continue. However, the question on everyone's mind was "why did Orimura run out of AD?" Even without the aid of the cameras, everyone could see that Cecilia's attack detonated way too far away to do any damage to Byakushi. Luckily, with the fight over, I could do a little more research. I manually searched for Orimura's bio.

_Orimura Ichika, 15 years old, Japan

_Personal IS: Byakushi

_Current equipment: Yukihira 2 (Classified, Alaska Pact II,1)

_Psychological Profile: Not available. (Classified, Alaska Pact II,1)

A bit more research revealed Byakushi's ability: to use AD to fuel a special attack that bypassed AD. Well, that explains that, I thought to myself before basking in the rays of the afternoon sun.


	3. Chapter 3 Even More Divergence

IS Ch.3 – Even More Divergence

Author's Note: To the two reviews I got at this point in my story: thank you so much! You have no idea how much that input meant to me! It felt so good to get some feedback from people I've never met before. Both your praise and criticisms filled me with so much enthusiasm, I sacrificed sleep to get more of the story out quicker. With support like yours and the visits from everyone else, I feel like I can do my best with this story, which originally started out as a gift.

Having so much fun with this. Oh, also there's a certain part here that I honestly have no idea about. I can't make heads or tails of the article itself, so I went with my best understanding of the subject. If I'm way too far off with the actual facts, I'm so sorry. I just couldn't understand the research. If anyone gets the time, I'd appreciate a bit of help with the subject.

One more thing, I'm sure you've noticed, but I'm having a great deal of problems with the pace. Specifically, I'm having trouble timing the OC action with the anime action. I'm solving this problem by describing less and less of the anime canon, but please bear with me as I feel that the checkpoints in the anime canon is vital to reading the story. Also, I'm writing this story as if it were an original story. I do this because some of my friends happened to find my rough drafts and wanted to read more, but they never saw IS. Of course, I recommended it, but just in case I decided to continue writing in this style. If you would like me to format the anime canon so that it's obvious and that you can skim over it, please let me know.

* * *

><p>Chapter Start<p>

* * *

><p>The day after the battle to decide the class representative, Orimura-sensei decided to have a practical lesson on IS flight maneuvers. She had the class change into their IS pilot suits: a one-piece leotard without sleeves and thigh high stockings made of a special material. The only person not on the arena field was me, relaxing in the shade and observing. Officially, my excuse was sickness, which Yamada accepted. In reality, Orimura-sensei ordered me to sit out the practical lesson. She mentioned something about my AR system, but she didn't understand exactly why it was a problem for me to suit up. I was to excuse myself from practical IS training until further notice.<p>

Orimura-sensei had her brother and Cecilia call their IS from standby mode. Cecilia's earring glowed, calling forth Blue Tears from xtradimensional space. I noticed that she replaced her Blue Tears UAV with a spare set. Other than that, the only other difference was that she didn't call her gun. Orimura had a bit of trouble with his. Eventually, he found the button on his gauntlet and called forth, "Come, Byakushi!"

Orimura-sensei ordered them into the air. Cecilia took off like a rocket, directly upwards with a powerful thrust. Orimura took off like a duck, wobbling to and fro before finally achieving lift and falling in line behind Cecilia. Cecilia took a look at Orimura, then sped up, expecting Orimura to follow her. Eventually, he caught up and and overtook the experienced Englishwoman. Cecilia, in turn, took up the wingman position to Orimura's left. After a full lap, Sensei ordered them to do a steep drop, stopping before reaching the ground. Cecilia followed her orders to the letter, angling straight down, then using conventional thrusters to arrest her motion before crashing into the ground. Orimura then attempted his own orders. I say attempted, because it seemed to me that he forgot about his thrusters. Instead of Cecilia's falcon dive , he plowed into the earth like an ostrich, the AD saving his life. The impact carved out a huge crater, sending dirt everywhere in a giant plume. Luckily, the crater was fairly far away from the class and no one else got injured or even dirty.

Houki, Yamada, and Sensei walked over to the crash site, followed by the rest of the class. As for me, I turned on my AR and watched the scene through the arena camera closest to them. I saw Orimura dismiss his IS, and pull out his head from the comical hole in the ground. All of a sudden, Cecilia jumped into the crater and started checking him over. Wasn't that girl on bad terms with him? Apparently Houki thought so too as she strode over and started arguing with her. It seemed that no one won; both of them they turned away from each other with arms folded. Seeing her lesson come to a crashing halt, Orimura-sensei terminated the practical early and had us change back into our uniforms to continue with class.

After class ended, I received a message from Orimura-sensei: "Change into the pilot suit and come to R&D 12 at 3. Cancel all plans you have for the rest of the day."

I sighed, and walked over to Nefer's classroom. She finished packing whatever she had and greeted me with a cheery, "Hello!" Her cheer changed to sadness when I told her I had Academy stuff to do and that I wouldn't be able to join her for dinner. She walked away, dejected. I called out to her, "When I can, I'll make a cake! Just wait, ok?" She didn't react, which was a shame because I was suddenly in the mood for some cake. I shrugged to no one in particular and walked to the dorm. I stripped down and put on my one piece leotard and stockings. I wore my uniform over it and headed to R&D 12.

Just like before, racks of mass produced IS were dimly lit by yellow lights, leading me to a laboratory table. A woman I've never met before sat on it, sitting girlishly with her hands on her knees.

"Hi!" She called to me. With a quick movement, she flung herself off the table and grabbed my pendant. The choker's magnetic couple detached from the force and I lost my AR.

"Sorry, but I'll need this for a bit." She explained to me. "I'm Dr. Nebata. I'm the one in charge of your experiments, my little guinea pig." I looked her over but didn't find anything interesting. She looked like an office lady with a lab coat, her only abnormal features being her pink hair and purple eyes. In return, she examined me, gazing deeply into my face. For a second, I was reminded of a wolf stalking its prey, but it quickly left.

"Basically," she drawled, "we installed the AR implants to replace the IS's internal AR. By removing the system, we feel we can expand the capabilities of IS by quite a large margin. Therefore, we will be giving you a personal IS, Uchigane Custom. Officially, you are in the group sharing Uchigane 200, however you are the only one in the group. Clever right?" She beamed at me with a child-like smile.

"Uhhh, sure." I reassured her. She responded by nuzzling my breasts with her face, her face fell, probably depressed by their small size. Or probably the padding, but luckily she didn't mention it.

"Thanks so much!" she exclaimed, but not with her previous energy. "But remember that Uchigane Custom doesn't have an AR system. The only person that should be able to use it is you," She cautioned. She continued, "Now, take off your uniform and stand here."

I did so, exposing my flat chest to the world, a result of the lean physique acrobatics gave me.

"Are you sure it had to be a skin-tight leotard? And what's with the thigh-highs?" I complained to the doctor.

With a fervor similar to Honne's, she thrust a fist into the air and stated, "Because its sexy!"

I hugged my arms tightly across my chest and muttered, "Right..."

The doctor realized her cheesy pose and sheepishly lowered her hand. She then reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of fingerless gloves. On the backs of them were identical pentagons, inscribed with Japanese kanji. I tapped my fingers, only to remember that I didn't have my pendant anymore.

"What do these kanji mean?" I asked the doctor.

"Absolutely nothing," she answered with a laugh. "They're meant to look like a cheap accessory a trendy but gullible American tourist would buy."

"Ugh. So now I'm trendy but gullible," I retorted, resisting the urge to put my hands on my waist.

"Oh no, no, no," echoing Nefer's dismissal of my thoughts before the glue incident. "I was the one who bought it. I really like how they looked on you when you were running, so I thought I just had to make the standby form into these."

She handed me the gloves and explained, "The right one's emblem is actually your IS in standby form. The left is just to match. Now, you got used to the AR system, right? Even in your IS, you can't use the AR system without your pendant. However, when you have both the IS should link to your AR system and start enhancing your senses. However, this will suspend your ability to hack and control the Academy systems so keep that in mind when you call it. Now, concentrate on calling the IS here. Pretend its bond to you is so strong that it literally crosses space and time to answer your call."

"...How wonderfully shounen," I deadpanned. "But I will admit that it's a good visualization." I put on the gloves and held my right hand in front of me. I supported my wrist with the left and called, "Uchigane." I felt a gentle hand scoop me into the air, while the arms and legs materialized around my own limbs. The cavities inside swelled to accommodate my body, like 4 sleeping bags for just my arms and legs. Above my shoulders were floating guards, on my waist the hilt from which I drew my weapons. I tried to move, but the heavy armor would not budge. I felt like a giant paperweight, standing there in an inactive IS.

"Oh right, the pendant," Dr. Nebata gasped, just now remembering my key. "Just hold on a moment."

I spent what seemed like an eternity of moments waiting patiently for the doctor to finish setting up various devices, all connected by wire to a single screen. Bored out of my mind, I asked the doctor, "Why are you using such an obsolete system?"

The doctor answered offhandedly, "Because everything that's going on is confidential. There will be no official record of this experiment, save for the fact you were assigned Uchigane 200. The data I do need will be recorded and stored on this computer only." She patted the screen tenderly. She finally finished messing with the settings and handed me my pendant.

I shook my head, and she realized I couldn't even move, much less grab the pendant. She reached up high, standing on her toes to place the pendant where it belonged. I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the sensory input Yamada mentioned in her lectures. At the limits of her stretch, she finally succeeded in getting the pendant close enough to attach itself to my chest. Immediately, I was filled with some kind of super-sense. As if I could could tell where everything in the room near me was located without even looking. By touching my fingertips, I could call up AR screens. I could feel my fingertips touching themselves, feeling cold and hard. I could hear the tiny gears and motors in my IS rotate as they performed that small motion. I opened my eyes, and immediately my nerves flared up in pain.

I thrashed my torso left and right, but the IS wouldn't let me move anything else. I had to endure in my mechanical prison, tortured by a burning sensation as memories mixed with the present flashed before my eyes.

I saw a cart of clothes approaching fast as I dove from a rooftop, desperately clutching a loaf of bread.

I saw Dr. Nebata get rebuffed by my AD while trying to remove my pendant.

I saw my hand inscribing letters I just learned into a headstone with a sharp rock.

I saw Dr. Nebata cower away and call for help on her cell.

I saw the inside of a rucksack, being carried someone I didn't know.

I saw the R&D door open, an unidentifiable figure silhouetted by the setting sun.

I saw an open window on the second story, then scaled it to clamber inside.

I saw that figure brandish a sword, preparing an intense slash.

I saw Nefer's weak smile as she pressed her hand onto the glass of the ICU unit that separated us.

I saw that sword swing through the air, the edge cutting through the AD in a shower of sparks.

I felt each and every molecule of my being painfully dissolve into nothingness, before I became nothingness myself.

* * *

><p>I woke up in a white room. An iron lung forced air into and out of my lungs. I could feel an IV delivering fluids into my bloodstream. I tried to turn my head to see more of my surroundings, but my muscles wouldn't respond. I couldn't even close my eyes. Trapped again in another prison, I was forced to stare at the ceiling as the minutes turned into hours.<p>

I couldn't even begin to describe how unbearably boring it was to stare at the ceiling, but I cried tears of relief when my eyes finally obeyed my command to close.

With my eyes finally closed, I concentrated on falling asleep. When I woke up, I was being examined by Dr. Nebata. I moved my mouth experimentally, then attempted to speak.

*gasp

*gasp

With a cry of surprise, the doctor quickly removed the iron lung from my nose. I took a few more experimental breaths, each lung extremely hard to inflate. I had to concentrate to get used to breathing again, taking me a few minutes before I could do it normally. My eyes could blink as much as I wanted, but I still couldn't move my body well. I slowly turned my head to look at the doctor, who looked pleased with my partial memory, but guilty over my recent experience.

"...What...wrong?" I managed to get out. I had to inhale deeply to have enough air to get each word out. To my ears, it still sounded weak and exhausted.

"I'm so sorry," she started. "I had no idea that the system would overload. It looked like you were in so much pain. You kept screaming and screaming. When your AD activated, you screamed even louder and started flailing and thrashing around. You completely wrecked the R&D room."

That confused me: I don't remember moving anything. On the contrary I felt trapped with nowhere to go. I didn't even remember screaming so much, either.

"You know," she continued, "if it wasn't for Orimura-sensei you would have kept on going to destroy the entire room, probably."

She brought into my sight the pendant from my choker, with a neat new cut right through the middle horizontally. She placed it on the table near me, before going on, "I told her to destroy the pendant to shut down the AR system. Without the AR system, the IS stopped and you fell unconscious. This made the IS revert to standby mode." She pulled out my gloves, showing me the emblems before setting them on the table with the pendant.

"That's basically what happened," she concluded. "Orimura-sensei got you to the infirmary where the doctors put you on life support. They weren't allowed to change you due to the fact that this was a direct result of classified experimentation, so the secret of your breasts is safe with me." She attempted a little humor to soften the explanation.

"...Domo...Arigato..." I said, purposefully monotoning to show my sarcasm.

She flinched at that, then stared down at the floor while playing with her fingers.

I heard the door open and Orimura-sensei greet me with an "Osu!"

"Chi-chan!" Dr. Nebata flung herself towards sensei and started nuzzling her breasts. Sensei's fist of discipline, after days of hibernation, made its comeback performance on the back of the doctor's head.

I couldn't help but snicker.

"So, I see you're awake," Sensei commented. "Well then, down to business."

The doctor quickly recovered from the punch and drew up her chair beside me. All business, she told me, "As I mentioned earlier, the AR system overloaded your implants. Since the implants were directly connected to your nerve tissue, they immediately flared up due to the low electrical current the overload caused. It wasn't enough to kill you, however it obviously caused you significant pain."

"...Not...just...that," I interrupted, "...could...not...move. Could...not...speak. Could...not... think. Saw...memories..."

"Hmm, memories?" The doctor jumped on this particular piece of information.

"Focus," Orimura-sensei reminded the doctor.

"Right, anyways we think that you won't be able move your body without the AR system anymore."

"...What?" I interrupted again.

"We think that this episode caused your implants to fuse with your nervous system. As far as we can tell, the system still works and your nerve tissue is still intact, but it just won't communicate with your brain properly. Your head works since there's almost no implants in there except in your eyes, but you won't be able to move anything else without an active AR system."

"...So...I'm...stuck...here."

"Until we make a new key. It shouldn't take more than a couple of days," Orimura-sensei reassured me.

"Now, about the cover story. You remember using sickness as an excuse to get out of IS training right? Well, that sickness caused you to be bedridden for a couple of days. Your roommate will come by later with your homework so you can catch up. We'll do you a favor and stream the lectures you missed, so I expect the homework to be done by the time you get back."

"...Fine." I couldn't muster the strength to argue back, it seemed just listening to them made me tired. "Sleep...now.."

"Alright." Finished with the debriefing, Sensei and the Doctor left me to sleep.

* * *

><p>I woke up in the morning, still stuck in my bed. I noticed a computer screen on my table, and behind the table I saw Nefer curled up on a wall. I guess she decided to stay by my side after delivering the homework. I glanced at the clock on the wall: about 30 minutes to class.<p>

"...Nefer." I called out to her. I still needed deep breaths between words, but they were louder now.

"Nefer...Nefer..." I repeated, allowing my pitch to go higher and higher.

Nefer, not at all a morning person, yawned cutely. Still dressed in her uniform, she struggled to stretch out all her limbs, before her eyes opened to see me in bed. Her eyes suddenly opened wide, and she all but fell over, scrambling to get to my side. She grabbed my hand and motor-mouthed, "Are you ok? Does anything hurt? I'm so sorry I didn't know you were feeling this bad. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry."

She kept repeating that apology over and over again. I wanted to put my hand on her head, but I couldn't move it even a millimeter. I wanted to nuzzle my head against her, but she was too far away. I tried to call to her, to tell her "it's ok," but my words fell upon deaf ears. I stopped calling her name to saved my strength, but regretted my helplessness once again as I couldn't do anything for this girl. All I could do was to wait patiently as she cried herself to sleep.

"Nefer." I called once again. No reply. This was a deeper sleep than before. I wanted to shout, but I couldn't get out more than a loud whisper. I decided to fall asleep too, when I noticed that Nefer was still grabbing onto my hand. I realized that I couldn't feel her warmth, or even her touch. I was minutely aware of the fact that I couldn't feel anything, like I sat on my leg wrong but throughout my entire body. This feeling made me incredibly nauseous, so I distracted myself with trying to go back to sleep myself.

I woke up about an hour later, according to the clock on the wall. Nefer had probably woken up and headed to class while I was asleep. Dr. Nebata came in after that, checked on my vitals, and left. Other than that, I had little to do but exercise my neck, and watch as the screen Nefer left me streamed Yamada's lecture. Luckily enough, whoever set it up for me made it so I could see it comfortably from my position. During the relevant mealtimes, I was given a liquid diet for the first few meals, but this was quickly changed to something more substantial when I discovered I could chew and swallow correctly, just so long as the nurse on duty up-righted my bed. After lunch, I continued listening to the rest of the lecture, then went to sleep again.

I woke up in the afternoon with Nefer working on her homework at my desk. I called out to her, "Nefer."

She immediately dropped her stylus and looked at me, tears in her eyes. Luckily for her, she didn't do a repeat of her power-slide, as I didn't think she had enough room. I'd hate to call the nurse over for yet another injury.

"How are you, Ate?" she whimpered. Every time she saw me like this, she couldn't stop watering up.

"I'm ok. Just a bit tired." I lied again to her. Better that she thinks I'm sick and tired then quadriplegic.

"Good." I'm really glad to hear that.

"I've been wondering, Nefer. You've been taking your medicine?"

"Yeah, the nurses have been administering it before I leave here after dinner every day."

"Good to hear. You know you really should take it the right way."

"I know, but I really don't want to." She turned her head to concentrate on her homework.

At this point I decided to stop arguing. Once she started on her homework, nothing could phase her. Except for me in the hospital apparently. Of course, this was the first time in the 7 years I've known her that I've been the sick one instead of her.

I took another catnap to about dinnertime, where I was awoken by Nefer to try out her spinach salad with grilled chicken. Even with such a simple dish, I could tell she was getting better and better. The chicken was cooked thoroughly and cut into as evenly sized as possible, and each spinach leaf was fresh and free of bruises. I ate silently, while Nefer delivered both my dinner and the latest gossip.

It seemed that while I was in bed, a new student by the name of Rin transferred in. I wanted to ask if it was really "Lin", but Nefer shoved a spoonful deep into my mouth, saying dryly, "The new girl's Chinese. She can pronounce R's correctly."

"Mmmphmm," I mumbled, not allowing her the final word. It would've been a funny retort if I could actually say it.

"You didn't even try to say anything," she accused. She removed the spoon from my mouth.

After swallowing, I argued, "I totally said something! It would've made you best a gut laughing so hard!"

"Oh yeah," she accused. "What was it?"

I lowered my head and mumbled, "Mmmmphmm."

"I knew it!" Nefer exclaimed, jumping out of bed and pointing her finger at me.

"Fine, fine. Help me finish off dinner and then let's do some of my homework."

"Sure!" she agreed happily, finally one-upping me in an a teasing competition.

After finishing the salad, she sat back at the side table and started asking me questions from the homework. Using the knowledge from the lectures, I dictated to Nefer what everything should be. Anything I got wrong, Nefer explained to me, and I reworded my answer to reflect the right answer. Eventually we finished, and I promptly fell asleep.

One day turned into two, which turned into three. I was beginning to think they forgot about me when I received a message during that third day's lunchtime. The nurse feeding me read out loud, "Sorry, you'll be stuck there for four more days. Hopefully, we'll get you out of there before the Inter-Class Representative Cup begins, but don't expect a miracle. Sensei."

"What was that about?" the nurse questioned me. I wanted to shrug my shoulders, but I haven't made any progress in moving an inch of my body. Instead I shook my head, "Sorry, it's classified."

These magic words stopped the conversation dead, although they only worked on the staff. As per Sensei's orders, the students were not allowed to get wind of the experiments being performed here. However, the staff was in one way or another tipped off about what could happen here and would dare not lose a job over being too nosy. Uncomfortable in the silence, the nurse attempted to make small talk, bringing up random topics she overheard me go over as I listened to my class. I obliged, partly due to the fact I really couldn't do anything else. Eventually, she left to continue her rounds, so I went back to sleep. Before I drifted off, I realized I was getting better at falling asleep on command.

* * *

><p>Each day passed like the one before it. I would've died from boredom if it weren't for the classes everyday, the nurse spending time with me, and Nefer visiting me in the afternoon. One time, she even brought this Rin person to introduce me. Apparently, she had stopped by for her psych exam, when she encountered Nefer on the way. As the new class representative, Rin thought it was a good opportunity to get to know the shyest girl in the class. Nefer couldn't come up with an excuse to reject the pushy girl, so she introduced us. Rin introduced herself as Huang Lingyin, but allowed me to call her Rin. With that short introduction, she left to the psych ward. The rest of the day proceeded like normal, and then Sunday came. I thought this would be the hardest time for me to overcome as I had absolutely nothing to do. Nefer had come in the morning before leaving for a family visit she couldn't get out of. But my sanity was saved by Honne, who came by to talk and gossip about Rin and Orimura's relationship, which I only half-listened to. When she realized I wasn't interested in matters of love, she pulled out her treasure: a copy of Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagaan and an old style flat screen to watch it with. We spent the day shouting catch phrases and acting manly, a silly sight for a couple of girls. After the marathon of manly men being manly, Honne reverted to her sleepy girl persona and bid me adieu, just as Nefer came back from her trip and gave me some souvenirs from wherever she's gone. We chatted about her family before the hospital ordered the lights out. Nefer left for the dorm while I slept restlessly for the first time in a long while. Tomorrow was both the day of the Inter-Class Representative Cup and the day I should get my pendant.<p>

There were no classes, so I attempted to wait patiently for the new pendant and the key to restarting my mobile life. I tossed and turned my head this way and that, catching the eye of the nurse who took care of me. I really couldn't explain why I was so excited to her, so instead I told her I really wanted to look at something other than a ceiling. Accepting my request, she raised the head of my bed up, then cheerfully left with a smile.

I stared out the window, when a familiar black IS flew up to the sill.


	4. Chapter 4 The Big Action Sequence!

IS Chapter 4 – The Big Action Sequence! This is Why It's Called Infinite Stratos!

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: None, really.<p>

* * *

><p>Chapter Start<p>

* * *

><p>The black IS floating outside my window aimed an enormous hand mounted cannon through the window. It fired a shot way too small to be coming out of the barrel. The energy of the shot caused the glass to melt around it silently, as the slow ball of energy drifted through the room. I turned my head with it, as the shot made contact with the steel frame of the door. The heat melted the steel, welding the two irreversibly together.<p>

"Noctores Gospel." I spoke the codename of the unit, giving me user access.

"Scanning, scanning complete." A feminine yet emotionless voice announced through the slagged window. "Mission temporarily suspended due to agent involvement."

"Are you running on full AI?" I asked the machine.

"Affirmative."

"Reasons?"

"Shielding around IS Academy prevents non-Academy signals to be transmitted. Without the encryption key, direct control via wireless network cannot be activated, thus the approval of full AI."

"Mission objectives?"

"Mission objective 1: Disable IS Byakushi and Shenlong. Recover if successful. Eliminate pilots."

Ooh, that's no good. Still, it didn't really have anything to do with me, so I relaxed a bit.

"Mission objective 2: Recover Codename Nefer. Should recovery be impossible, eliminate Codename Nefer."

The blood in my head ran cold. Nefer? What could they want with her? I mean, I knew I was supposed to keep tabs on her, but the plan was for her to come back with me after graduation. And the order to eliminate her? What were those suits thinking?

Struggling to keep my voice under control, I ordered the robot, "Terminate mission. Access code 9-Alfa-Lima-Romeo."

"Code rejected, mission succeeds code authority. Resuming mission." The unit flew up to the roof of the hospital, probably to accumulate energy to break through the arena where the Cup was.

No, whoever assigned the mission had more authority than I did! I didn't care about the other pilots, but that thing was going to abduct Nefer!

I considered calling for help, but welding the door shut rendered that option useless. I looked at the door, then noticed that my gloves and the damaged pendant were still on the table. I gambled Nefer's future on that pendant. I twisted my neck, then flung my head toward the table. The tendons in my neck screamed from the unusual motion, but I couldn't worry about that. The momentum of my head started to cause my torso to sway. Like a schoolyard swing, I timed the rhythm of my headbanging to the sway of my torso. I eventually succeeded in falling onto the table, the corner jabbed straight into my stomach. I could see that it wasn't deep, but I knew if it wasn't for the fact I couldn't feel anything I would've probably fainted from pain. I could see that the pendant didn't fall off the table from the impact. I wormed my head across the table, using my skin for friction and my hair to slide back to position. I eventually got close enough for the pendant to magnetically adhere to my chest.

Immediately, I felt the pain from my bleeding gut. I fell off the table to move from the uncomfortable position I was in and pressed the soft, cool, bloody sheets to my gut. Tying them into a makeshift dressing, I put on my gloves and dashed for the broken window. I removed my hospital gown, using it as a shield from the window fragments as I flung myself through them. I hung in midair, relishing in the adrenaline my body flooded through me, the warmth of the sun on my skin, and the wind rushing past my naked, bandaged body as I plummeted from the top floor of the academy.

I held out my hand, concentrated somehow, and called, "Uchigane!" Blinding pain raced up and down my limbs, completely different from last time. I could feel each and every cell and sinew of my limbs wear away, replaced by a cold mechanical construct. My arms sheathed themselves in cold steel, my legs wrapped with cold greaves. Out of my collarbones, I grew two large, intimidating flaps of cold guards. Just as suddenly as the pain appeared, it disappeared with the sudden appearance of my Uchigane Custom. However, the IS still wouldn't move, even with the pendant on. I clicked my fingers together, realizing in horror that the AR system wouldn't start. The ground grew closer and closer as I desperately clicked my fingertips together.

Click, click, click, click, click. I pleaded with the IS to move for me. Please, please, please, please!

Then I heard a gentle, familiar voice from deep within my heart. Time faded away as my consciousness fell onto a rainy, open field. I opened my "eyes" to find the owner of the gentle voice. Shrouded by her wet, dripping hair, the woman smiled at me. She bent over my prone body to shield me from the unrelenting rain.

"Do you want power?"

Even though the lips of the woman moved, the voice came from the center of my being, and reverberated throughout my soul.

"Yes." My own words echoed throughout this space, now silent with the rain stopped.

"Why?"

A stronger reverb, this one shaking my "body".

I thought hard. This was a question that had no easy answer.

Another familiar figure bent over me.

"Is it for me?" the only man Orimura asked.

Another figure.

"Is it for me?" the new student Rin asked.

Another figure.

"Is it for me?" the feisty samurai Houki asked.

Another figure.

"Is it for me?" the proud sniper Cecilia asked.

Another figure.

"Is it for me?" the cool instructor Orimura-sensei asked.

Another figure.

"Is it for me?" the energetic child Honne asked.

"Yes and no," I answered them.

"Then is it for me?" the shy princess Nefer asked.

I took a deep breath and answered her honestly. "Yes, but no."

"It's true that I care for you a lot Nefer, but honestly I don't think I would try so hard for you, or any of these guys." From my prone position I gestured at all the other people huddled around me. I stretched my arm straight up, scattering everybody surrounding me. I got up onto my feet and walked past Nefer to a small child, hidden by the bodies of my classmates. The child was scribbling a name with great difficulty into a tombstone.

"Sever Panganiban," I read aloud. The small child turned around with sad eyes and looked at me.

"Is that your name?" the guilty child asked.

"It's yours now, Sever." I answered. "And all the responsibility that name holds. For that duty, you need strength. And for my duty, I need power."

My sight abruptly changed back to a rapidly approaching asphalt layer. Immediately afterwards, light radiated from my IS. The steel on my arms and the greaves on my legs turned a dark violet. The hilt on my side was gone, replaced with an IS sized-pistol. My shoulder guards were replaced by...the Blue Tears UAV system?

I had no time to think about that as IS AR systems flared to life, displays screeching warnings about the altitude rapidly decreasing. I copied what I saw Cecilia do, somersaulting forward until my thrusters pointed towards the ground, then firing to slow down as much as possible. It seemed like the IS knew exactly what the procedure was, however I wasn't able to slow down enough to completely arrest my motion. As soon as I hit the ground, I cut the thrusters and bent my legs in an effort to absorb the shock. I felt my muscles scream in pain from the recoil. I ignored the pain, endorphins kicking in after the fact. I launched the Blue Tears UAVs, then followed them with a thruster-assisted jump. As I cleared the roof, I saw the black IS Noctores Gospel in full armament. A huge IS, it was at least a couple of meters taller than a standard IS. It reminded me of a giant gorilla with a huge cannon mounted over its head, pointing at the arena. That same cannon was also glowing with a pulsating, purple light. Similar to its stunt with the wrist cannon earlier, but using a more spectacular ordinance. It's two arms were staked into the roof of the academy, preparing for the recoil. The legs were thin and spindly for an IS, obviously an oversight due to the flight capability IS had. In the pilot's seat, a thin frame in a jumpsuit with a helmet hung suspended from the limbs. However, I knew that underneath that human-looking jumpsuit was just a bunch of motors, gears, and electrical relays. Only able to send simple commands to the UAVs, I had them all converge on the cannon's barrel, lifting it high into the sky. Simultaneously, I charged in, grabbing the cannon's body, desperately holding it to the sky.

bbbbbooooooommmmm!

A muted explosion followed the massive beam of light as it dissipated into the empty sky. Immediately after the force misfire, the black IS de-staked its arms and fired at my stomach with a fully charged wrist cannon shot from both arms. I was forced into the air by the blast, clutching my stomach as the cloth grew ever more crimson. I checked my stats on one of the screens. As expected, the heavy blast depleted over half my available shield energy. It also overpowered the AD, hitting me with a blow like a train right into my wound. Once again, I grit through the pain and call for weapons. Another screen informed me that no offensive weapons were equipped and the pistol at my side was unusable. Except for Blue Tears UAVs. But as I called for another wave of attacks, the Blue Tears UAV disappeared, replaced by a familiar pair of shoulder guards, now colored deep violet. With this part replacement, the weapon screen suddenly said "Aegis online."

"Activate Aegis!" I used the vocal command. Flaps opened near my fists, elbows, knees, and feet, followed by 8 green barriers. It only covered the area in front of each point, but I understood exactly what these were for.

I charged the black IS again. The black IS shot a volley of wrist mounted shots at about half the power it shot before. I blocked each shot with a shield as I approached. As I blocked the shots, I noticed I felt no recoil from guarding each of these shots. Suddenly, it bowed down, staked its arms again and shot its main cannon. With no time to evade, I pulled my arms and legs inward to protect my stomach. The weapon screen in front of me read "Grand Aegis." I braced myself for the impact, which never came. Using the IS sensors, I reached out with my senses, finding no ordinance in the air, nor concentrations of energy. Cautiously, I unfolded my limbs and tried to catch my breath. With my stomach hurt, I couldn't breath with my diaphragm like normal, so I settled for panting with my tongue out.

I made a theory regarding the "Aegis" weapon. As a weapon, Aegis coated my attacking points with a shield. Any guard made with these points would eliminate the recoil, in effect protecting me from damage. An attack with these would most likely do the same thing, allowing me to attack without fear of pain. "Grand Aegis" was a purely defensive tactic, activated by covering my body with the shields.

I decided to test that theory with another charge. Before I got shot with the main cannon, I was about ¾ of the way to the black IS. Now much closer than before, the black IS didn't even have enough time to un-stake its arms. I held onto its arms with mine, then started kneeing the "pilot" in the helmet over and over. Like I thought, every hit made with the shielded knees imparted force to the victim, without me feeling any recoil whatsoever. This weapon violated Newton's Third Law of Motion!

However, in my excitement I forgot to take into account one thing: my opponent was a machine and thus had no feeling of pain. If I were to face a human-operated IS, I'm sure that these attacks would overpower the AD and hurt the pilot, but all this did was give the AI a chance to charge its cannon once again.

I decided my first priority was getting rid of the cannon, so I let go of its arms and grabbed its cannon by the body. I opened my thrusters to full throttle, fighting whatever force kept the cannon attached to the black IS. Suddenly I felt it give way, but when I looked down, I saw that it had un-staked its arms again, fully charged them and prepared to fire. I swung my knees over to both barrels just as it did. Apparently, Aegis couldn't absorb every attack, as I took another significant depletion of my shield energy. I jabbed my feet into the barrels, hoping that the Aegis there could withstand another attack. While doing this, I didn't realize that the black IS had maneuvered us so that I was below it, then used the thrusters on its feet to drive me into the ground. As far as I knew, there was no Aegis at my back, so I devoted the rest of my strength into destroying that bothersome cannon of its.

I squeezed as hard as I could, now a race for time to see what would be destroyed first: me or the cannon. The black IS fired a lateral thruster, pushing us past the side of the Academy. This gave me a bit more time to crush the cannon in my embrace.

We plummeted, the altimeter dropping numbers like crazy.

At 10 stories above, the IS started shooting its wrist cannons, getting negated by the Aegis I stuck into its barrels.

At 5 stories above, the "pilot" somehow slipped out of the pilot's seat and started pummeling me with weakened, but accurate fists aimed at the bandaged cut in my stomach. With no Aegis to protect me, the AD did what it could to soften the blows, but nonetheless I felt each and every punch rend the wound more and more.

At 1 story above the "pilot" re-equipped the IS and then detached the cannon.

At ground level, I smashed into the ground, my own IS making a crater rivaling Orimura's. The last of the AD expended itself trying to protect me. As a result, I suffered no extra bodily harm, but my IS was thrashed. Automatically, it returned to standby mode. However this sacrifice was not fruitless, I used the impact to help me crush the cannon. Shards of the fragile weapon embedded themselves in my naked body.

"Threat suppressed. Main weapon lost, switching to close range assault strategy." The black IS announced.

It rose into the air and accelerated towards the stadium. I took stock of my own condition. With multiple shards of some kind of metal embedded in me everywhere, at the very least I could take solace in that most were very shallow. The big problem was the wound in my stomach. Without looking through the sheet I tied around it, I could tell it was even larger than it was before the first main cannon shot that hit me properly. With the amount of blood in the sheet, I seriously thought I was going to die from blood loss.

I noticed that the black IS pierced through the shield, probably by firing its wrist cannons at full power at a specific point, then flying through the small gap at maximum speed. With the last strings of my life, I reached out with the AR systems, now functional due to the loss of my IS. I repaired the shield of the arena, then initiated lock down mode. Because Nefer was in the audience, in order to kidnap Nefer or attempt to kill her, it would have to repeat its original stunt, but it would have to face waves upon waves of battle-ready class representatives and teachers before doing so.

My final revenge on Phantom Task. This is the proof that I existed. Not as their agent. Not as Nefer's sibling.

I am the one who inherited the will of Sever Panganiban. That name will end with me.

* * *

><p>Once again, I woke up in the hospital, in what looks like the same room, what looks like the same clock, and what looks like the same table. But a quick glance at the door at the foot of my bed and window to the side reminded me that this wasn't my old room. My old room was permanently welded shut, and they would have to replace both the frame and the window before it could be used again. The pendant from my neck was removed, sitting on the table next to me in a clear plastic case, once again trapping me in my warm but unfeeling body.<p>

I tried to get to sleep, but it never came. For whatever reason, my brain refused to shut down, not like the last time I was in an infirmary. And so I lied there, staring at the ceiling of that pure white room.

After countless hours, Orimura-sensei came into the room. She pulled out a jewelry case and removed an orange pendant.

"It took us a week to make this. We had to waterproof, shockproof, heatproof, electric proof, and a lot of other proofs that took a week to do," Orimura irritatedly explained. She positioned the pendant onto my chest with a great deal more force than necessary. In fact, the first thing I did after regaining control over my body was to rub the inflicted area and watch the bruise form. As I rubbed that bruise, I noticed that my arm was covered in bandages. I lifted the sheet, noticing that all of my body was covered in bandages, lighter near the joins, but especially dense near my stomach.

"Luckily, the nurse who was watching over you was watching your fight. After the black IS left, she immediately tended to your wounds, the doctors taking over after getting out of the locked-down arena."

I involuntarily gulped. Orimura shifted a wary eye to me, her expression gesturing for an explanation.

"That was me," I confessed. "After the IS went back into standby, I used the AR to hack the system and shut in the black IS inside the shield."

"You didn't think about the people inside?" Orimura-sensei raged, slamming her fist on the side table. I flinched, never seeing Sensei this enraged before. "The students were fighting in there! And you not only allowed an IS that could only be described as a war machine, but captured it AND those students inside the same localized area, surrounded by the entire student body?"

Her shouts echoed throughout the small, sterile room. I let the echo die, before making my voicing my opinion in a small, weak voice with my face carefully turned away from her sight.

"Sensei," I answered with a purposefully monotone voice. "I did not 'allow', I was 'forced to'. Harshly and excessively 'forced to.'" At this, I lifted my covers, showing Sensei the numerous amount of soft dressings bound around my body, strategically wrapped so that I could still move. I took a deep breath, pacing my explanation and allowing Sensei to take in the full scope of my wounds.

"I locked that IS in the arena as that was what I believed was the best choice. If you remember correctly, the students in there were fighting with IS, a good number of them with either personal IS or custom mass-produced IS. Those with personal IS have probably already gone through the 1st shift and practiced with it. On top of that, every single teacher, each a former pilot themselves, were also on site with IS stored in the bays in the stadium.

"Compare the capabilities of all those mentioned just now, with the capabilities of myself. I (a quadriplegic unless I'm wearing a certain piece of jewelry), who've been incapacitated for at least a week, forced to combat with a 'war-machine' IS with a body I wasn't used to moving, using an IS that wouldn't move until I forced a 1st shift (which until now I didn't even hear of until I went through it), having to withstand high-energy blasts that overpowered the AD with this wound in my stomach, and finally getting slammed into the ground at terminal velocity, losing consciousness at a rapid pace."

I took some more breaths to pace myself again, noticing that I had begun to accelerate my rate of speech and started using run-on sentences.

"My little brother was injured due to your decision." Sensei ground out.

"Was he the one who fought that thing?" I spat out derisively onto the side table. The crimson-colored saliva ran down the side. "Then I almost died giving him a fighting chance." With this, I hooked a delicate finger into the collar of Sensei's blouse, allowing the weight of it to pull her down to my face. I turned my face and showed her the terror of death etched into my eyes. The fear that I've had to live with for the past 10 years after the first time I "died". The terror of death I hid from Nefer and everybody in all the world from seeing.

The invincible Orimura Chifuyu, champion of the first Mondo Grosso IS tournament, looked into my eyes and recognized this shadow of death. For the first time that I've known of, I saw her startled face, undoubtedly wondering what trauma I must've gotten to have such a fear engraved upon my eyes at such a young age.

"Hai hai," a moment-breaking cheery voice called from the doorway. "Chi-chan, that's enough. Yamada-sensei is waiting for you in that R&D room."

"Right," said Orimura Sensei. I released my delicate grip on her clothes to let her stand up. "When the doctor over here finishes her check up, we will debrief you on your battle." She left the room with quick strides, obviously uncomfortable with what I showed her.

Dr. Nebata wheeled over a chair from another room and sat at the side of the bed. She was about to relax on the table, when she noticed the spit. She grabbed the bed sheet, crumpled up a good amount and used it to soak up however much she could. She then took the sheet outside, probably depositing in a laundry basket or something. After she returned, she shut and locked the door behind her.

"Alright," she started. "For starters, show me your face." I turned towards her and she took my cheeks in her hands. She examined me closely, taking special care to my eyes before finally writing something down in her familiar laptop for classified information.

"Now, show me that other face."

"What?" Not understanding exactly what she meant.

"I want to see the face you showed Chi-chan before I walked in," she explained gently.

"How long have you been here, really?" I asked her.

"Since Chi-chan shouted at you loud enough for the entire hallway to hear. Luckily, this hallway has been cleared due to your special status as an experiment."

"I see."

"I've known Chi-chan for a long time, and I know her faces better than anyone. The face I saw on her was one I didn't recognize, so I wanted to see what could make her look like that."

"Fine." I turned away for a second, recalled that first memory of "death", and allowed the doctor to see my face.

This time, she respectfully kept her hands down and examined me with only her eyes. After another uncomfortably long time, she wrote down more notes in her laptop.

"Your first face is a tense face, a mask that can easily be identified provided one look in the right places. It's a very well made mask, however, almost like another identity. The other face, the one you just showed me, is your real self, right?"

"It's been so long, that I usually think of the other face as my true face. No, it better to say that I want that face to be my true face," answering her with her own terms. "Through training, I've pushed those memories so far into the deep, that I didn't think about them for at least 7 years."

"Training?" she prodded.

In response, I nodded.

Dr. Nebata saw that I didn't want to explain further.

She got up to leave and jiggled the door when it wouldn't open. Realizing that it was still locked, she looked at me and mimed a blow to the back of her head, before leaving properly. I relaxed back onto the bed, stretching my limbs as much as possible now that I had full control over them again.

The doctor walked back inside with me still in the throes of ecstasy from the stretching. She patiently waited to catch my attention, then set a mug of steaming hot chocolate on the side table.

"As Orimura-sensei told you," referring to Sensei with her name and title, "there will be a debriefing on your battle. Our original intent was to complete a psychological evaluation before the debriefing, but I think you need your rest. You'll be woken up for dinner, then we'll call you in for that debriefing. I will also attend, asking questions every so often, to complete my evaluation on you. However, this evaluation will still be classified as a part of IS Academy research, so please keep these plans top secret."

"I understand."

"Then rest well," she smiled and closed the door. Before I drank the hot chocolate, I took a few hours to write my story-report, using my AR system to submit it to Orimura-sensei. Noticing the drink had cooled, I still downed Dr. Nebata's token of affection with gusto, then concentrated and getting as much sleep as I could before dinner.

* * *

><p>At dinnertime, I was awoken by a sad Nefer, traces of tears on her face. Now fully mobile, I wiped the last of them off her face. She responded with a shriek, and embraced me with all the power her little body had. I returned the affection hug, ignoring the pain it caused to my stomach. We stayed like this until the nurse in charge of me entered, who gave us a moment before setting down my dinner.<p>

"Would you mind if I ate dinner with you, Ate?" Nefer asked me. She lifted a bag filled with two lunch boxes, undoubtedly one being mine. I looked at the nurse, who nodded before taking the tray away, leaving two cups of pudding behind. She returned shortly afterwards with a tea set filled with piping hot tea. She poured us both a cup, then left to attend other duties. As for Nefer and me, we started on the bentos, neither of us able to say a word to each other. I'm sure that the stir-fried vegetable, the sausages shaped like octopus, the omelette, and the rice were all delicious, even if they were made quite some time ago. But all I could concentrate on was trying to say something to start the conversation. Every time our eyes met, I would flinch away and forget how I wanted to open the conversation. Finally, Nefer took the initiative and begun by asking, "So what happened this time?"

I could've told the truth. I knew I should've told the truth. It was definitely best for her to know that the reason I was close to death was because of her again, right?

No, no it wasn't right. I'm the older one. I can't let the girl who counts on me so much to suffer under my burden of fear. Unfortunately, I could feel the shadow of death on my face. I tried to tone it down, but ultimately I looked away from Nefer and said, "As soon as I got better, I stole an IS so that I could catch up with you and the rest of the class. This and that happened, and I found myself in the infirmary. At least this time I can move, right?"

I rubbed Nefer's hair, forcing her head down. I kept rubbing, but stopped when I heard sounds of sobbing.

"I thought you were going to leave me. I thought you were going to leave me like Dad and Mom did. I couldn't lose you, so I prayed. I prayed hard, day after day, to every deity and religion I could think of. I just don't...so don't die. Don't die. Don't die..."

I let her sob, but this time, I was able to give a firm one-armed hug, while keeping my hand on her head. I rubbed her head protectively, like a mother reassuring her child. Being able to respond to her ended her crying fit much earlier than before.

"I'm not going to die," I reassured her. "At least, not this moment. But, you know, it will happen."

Her body turned cold, as if my words shut down her body. Nevertheless, I continued on, "You and I are attending a school for us to learn to use armor straight out of science fiction. This armor and the politics surrounding it is the only thing keeping the world from getting embroiled in war. As soon as one country develops IS technology suitable enough to overpower the others, we will have to get into IS and fight for the sakes of our countries. That means killing, and risking being killed."

I rubbed her cold body, letting her know I'm still with her. "But that's a possible, cynical future. Maybe we'll do something about this, like a worldwide task force like the United Nations to make sure that war doesn't happen. Maybe we'll find a more peaceful use of IS besides deterrents for war. But for now, I'm here. You're here. We're alive. And while we're here, you'll need to be able to carry on without me. I need to know that should something happen to me, you'll be able to continue to live your life proudly. I would be incredibly sad if I found out that you gave up because of me, you know."

No response from Nefer, but she was still holding on to me.

"I'm no good at things like this. It's really hard to get my ideas across like this..."

I let my voice trail off. We sat there in another familiar silence, when Nefer broke the silence yet again. It made me start to think that maybe she's a bit tougher then she let on.

"Do you want to tell me something?" she asked. She let go of my torso and stared deeply into my eyes. She scanned the rest of my face, no doubt noticing the "right places" Dr. Nebata mentioned earlier.

"Look, there's something I've been trying to not let you see. If I show you this, you'll probably understand what I'm talking about, but I don't think we'll be able to go back to the relationship we had before."

Nefer inhaled deeply, than punched me with the widest, most powerful hook her fragile body could muster. I let her set her stance, wind up, then braced myself for what I thought would amount to a light slap. She launched me off the other side of the bed, sliding on the floor a couple of feet. I got up on my elbow, just barely able to look at Nefer of the side of the bed. I rubbed my cheek as Nefer rubbed her knuckles.

"Owww," Nefer whimpered. "So that's why they use boxing gloves."

Flabbergasted, I managed to get out, "Wha-what? When? How?" In hindsight, it was probably not my most eloquent moment.

Nefer took off her blazer, then rolled up the sleeves on her blouse. She showed me the lean sinews on her arms with a stretch, very different from what I remembered.

"I've been practicing kickboxing ever since we started coming here, Ate. I've been working on my physical strength even longer."

Nefer straightened out her blouse sleeves, then put on her blazer again.

"It's been 5 years since we first met each other. That was in the hospital, remember? After I got out, you helped me recover: cooking me meals, cleaning what I couldn't, going with me to physical therapy, and helping me study. You were my own personal hero: a girl my age able to do everything an adult could do. After I finally finished therapy, you kept...well...babying me. I started to feel like some kind of special needs person. But the worst part was the face you had on when you were doing those chores. You looked so angry or irritated or something when you were cleaning or you were studying with me. The only time you looked happy was cooking, and when we ate your food together. So I decided to show you that I wasn't helpless, that you were just being overly sensitive about me. I started with studying and cleaning, because I thought that wouldn't bother you and it was the stuff you hated. But when we got accepted to the Academy, I thought I needed to do more. That's why I shut myself in my room like that: I got a weight set and some books and started working out. It was really hard, but I wanted to show you that I'm not your baby and not your patient, but your equal. And if it ever happened, repay the favor to you," she concluded, motioning to the lunch boxes on the table.

"Well, looks like you're getting your chance," I remarked dryly. "I do have to admit, your cooking is getting really good. You might just have a natural talent for this."

"No," she blushed. "I just happen to know your tastes from eating your food so much."

"Well, cooking, cleaning, and studying is fine, but I let you sock me. Do you really want me to consider you an equal?" I challenged.

Nefer seemed to be getting pumped up. She rubbed her hands, clearly expecting a physical challenge. I threw a curveball: "I want you to make a friend other than me."

Already, her lip started trembling. "Wait, wait, wait. Couldn't it be more like 'Defeat me at the next IS competition coming up soon' or something?"

"No that'd be way too cliché. Actually, I'm more worried about your social skills than your IS skills. After all, the IS enhances your physical strength to much more than a normal human.

"What I was really worried about all those years ago was the fact you weren't good with talking with people. You've always had private tutors or self-study from even before I knew you, if I remember correctly."

Nefer gave me a guilty look.

"No, no, it's not your fault," I assured her, gesticulating with my hands she didn't deserve any blame. "Your parents just wanted the best education you could get. They just didn't think the teaching method through. But we can fix that. The medicine you were getting should at least inhibit any chemical reactions from fear that your anxiety gives you, but I'm sure if we work at it, we can get you to a point where you can work with people, and maybe even make a few friends that your comfortable with."

Nefer still didn't look pleased with the terms of the challenge. Unfortunately for her, she ran out of time to negotiate with me. Orimura-sensei entered the room, looked down on me on the floor, then turned an eye to Nefer on the other side of the bed, standing upright over me.

"What just happened?" Sensei inquired, folding her arms in front of her.

"A grave underestimation, sensei," I answered her in the most sincere tone I could muster. I stole a glance of Nefer, who glowed with pride. "Is it time to go, Sensei?"

"Yes, I'll accompany you over there, today, since you're injured."

"Wait, I want to come too," Nefer whined.

"Nefer, don't you have homework?" I admonished her. "Look, I shouldn't be too long, and as you can see, I'm doing fairly well. Go back to the dorm, do your homework, and I'll join you when I finally get released from the infirmary," emphasis on the finally to appeal to Nefer's good nature. That is, when her anxiety is under control.

"Fine, I got to think of some other stuff too," Nefer admitted. She walked around to my side of the bed and helped me onto my feet. "I'll make a big dinner when you get released, so make sure you let me know so I can plan, ok?"

She left quickly, probably still intimidated by Orimura-sensei's always serious look.

Once I was sure she left, I asked Sensei, "Can you get me some crutches, please? I don't think I can lock my legs for any longer."

Sensei walked over to the bed and pulled out a pair of crutches. She set them up underneath my arms, then sized it to my height. I allowed my legs to relax, balancing the rest of my weight on those crutches. Sensei supported my front, making sure I didn't lose balance. After giving me a minute to rest, Sensei helped me put on my uniform and started leading me out of the infirmary. For every two of her long strides, I planted the crutches and used both feet to launch myself forward. I didn't feel strong enough in my legs to be able to use just one. Sensei's foot pattern went click clack, click clack, her heels hitting the tile in a precise rhythm. I made a game out of it, matching her click with a thunk of my crutches, her clack with a thromp of my double-footed jump. This continued until we reached that all-too-familiar R&D room 12, the start of my staggering accumulation of injuries.


	5. Chapter 5 Impatience Leads to Split Ch

Ch.5 – Lesson Learned: Impatience Leads to Split Chapters

Author's Note: I don't think I'll ever be able to get over using self-admonishing titles. I joined the two parts of Chapter 4. Hope that didn't ruin the flow, everyone.

* * *

><p>Chapter Start<p>

* * *

><p>"So, that's where my gloves got to," I thought aloud as I stared at my IS at the end of the dim yellow lights. They must've moved the laboratory bed. The IS in question was undoubtedly an Uchigane type. It had the metal greaves on the legs, metal guards on the arms, and the shoulder guards that made it look like samurai armor. The only differences were that it was violet all over, and that the hilt where one would expect a samurai to draw its sword was replaced with a handgun with holster. This handgun was a lot bigger than the normal handgun the American mass-produced IS Gospel equipped. I, myself, didn't know too much about guns, but if one were to scale policeman's handgun to an IS's size, that would be the IS Gospel's standard sidearm. In comparison, this Uchigane's handgun was comparable to an old style Revolver Magnum, the type you see in spaghetti westerns. It had a long barrel and even revolving chamber that obviously held more than the 6 rounds a magnum would.<p>

"We've named this IS "Deep Purple". Officially, he doesn't exist," Dr. Nebata announced, appearing from behind the shadows of the IS. "Unofficially, he is your personal IS. In fact, this entire experiment was based around getting you to make him evolve to first shift."

"He? Evolve?" I repeated, never hearing those terms used to refer to an IS before.

"When an IS starts exhibiting signs of a personality, its common practice to start referring to it like a human, in order to help develop that IS's personality even further and make an even more effective IS/pilot team," Orimura-sensei clarified. "This is also why it has a proper name, rather than Uchigane Custom."

"IS Evolution is what we've termed the shifting of IS. It's a mostly uncontrollable process that upgrades the IS based on the personality of the pilot and the core of the IS," Dr. Nebata expanded.

"Huh," I exclaimed. "Well, partner, I hope we get along well." I patted the leg of the IS with my crutch. I imagined a mechanical head nodding in agreement.

"As far as appearances are concerned, you will be assigned another IS, conveniently the only pilot of its group," Orimura-sensei continued. "The official story regarding this change is that the injury that caused your second medical emergency was an accident in IS training practice."

"I told Nefer that my injuries came from practicing with an IS I didn't have permission to use late at night," I interrupted.

"We'll add that detail into the report," Orimura-sensei confirmed, writing notes onto a notepad she kept in her pocket. "Due to the accident, the Uchigane you 'used' was damaged beyond ability to simply replace its parts, so you and your 'group' were reassigned to a different IS: another modified Uchigane to use with your AR system. Instead of the preset, we'll equip it with gauntlets, grieves and a pistol. This will allow you to practice training with an IS with similar characteristics to Deep Purple."

"Chi-chan, if we're going to include the IS joyride in the report, we'll need to come up with a proper punishment for Sebu-chan," Dr. Nebata reminded Sensei, calling me by an odd-sounding nickname.

"Good point," Sensei agreed. "Sever, as penance you will be attending 'detention' in room R&D 1. That room is the largest R&D room we have. While there, you will be doing hands-on training with Deep Purple under my tutelage. At the very least, we'll drill the usage of the new abilities your IS evolved as a result of 1st shift."

"About that," I interrupted again. "Could you explain the evolution thing once again?"

Orimura-sensei grunted, then thumbed behind her back at the doctor. Obviously informed about this subject, Dr. Nebata pulled out a pair of clearly fake glasses from her pocket, pantomimed cleaning them with her breath, and set them on the bridge of her nose.

"As I said before, the 1st shift is the first stage of an IS evolution," Dr. Nebata began. "As the name infers, there could be a second, a third, and so on. However, we've only recorded IS evolution up to 2nd shift. Therefore, IS technology focuses on the supplemental equipment to IS, rather than designing for possible IS evolution," she continued, stressing the word "possible".

Like a good student, I waited for her to finish her dramatic pause. Pleased with my judgment, she continued, "I'm not sure if you covered this subject in your classes, but in general IS cores choose their pilots. No one really knows how, except for their inventor Shinonono Tabane. Unfortunately, her explanations are so advanced that most scholars are stumped and dismiss her wonderful explanations."

We let that sentence hang in the air for a bit, but probably for different reasons. I can't speak for either Sensei or the doctor, but I thought she was laying it on a little thick. I was tempted to look around the room for Shinonono Tabane herself, but I realized that not only did I not know what she looked like, but there was no way someone with such a high bounty on her head would hide out in such a famous landmark, filled with various representatives from countries all over the world. I sucked in the temptation and patiently waited for Dr. Nebata to continue.

"That's why most, if not all of IS Academy's foreign representatives, own a personal IS. They showed a capability to have the core of their IS accept them and evolve. They were pushed to study and learn IS to help bolster the capabilities of their own country's IS battalion. It's also the reason IS academy pulled some strings to get you enrolled and into this experimental program. Luckily, you just happened to be accepted legitimately, we just needed to take care of your financial capabilities.

"Continuing on, a 1st shift usually happens when the sync rate exceeds 100%. At this point, the capabilities of the IS core and the needs of the pilot at the time cause the IS equipment to change to whatever the capabilities of the IS core can provide. Rarely, this also results in a one-off ability, a specialized ability that cannot be copied by any other IS in the whole world."

Dr. Nebata, unleashed a cat-like smile at this point. "Your IS, as a result of the AR experiment was, designed to have two one-offs: a two-off."

"Wait," I interrupted for a third time. "You can design a one-off even thought they're rare? Didn't you mention that you can't control an evolution?"

"We can control it to a certain extent, because the capabilities of the core are partly dependent on the equipment on the IS itself. So if we put parts designed to evolve a certain way, and install a core that can take advantage of these designs, then we've guided the evolution towards a specific one-off, even if just a little bit.

"Case in point: Ikkun's Byakushi. His sword was deliberately designed to fold out. His 1st shift used that function to create a shield-piercing energy blade as his one-off."

"Aha," I uttered, a dawn of comprehension appearing on my face.

"Uchigane Custom's armor was designed with the same fold out technology that Byakushi's sword used, but on the IS armor itself. According to Deep Purple's data, its core evolved those fold outs into energy shields, due to protective impulses on your side. That's your first one-off. What confuses us is the second one-off. According to the data, it allows you to equip parts of other IS, like a mix-and-match costume. I know for a fact that no other IS has ever done anything even close to similar, so I need to know: What part of you caused the core to evolve this second one-off?"

"I would also like to ask you some questions regarding your report," Orimura-sensei added, tapping a display she miraculously procured out of nowhere. I assumed that she had a copy of the story-report I wrote before Nefer arrived for dinner.

"I see," I remarked contemplatively. "In that case, let's sit down; I've got a long story to tell."

We sat down in that dark room in a very specific arrangement. I sat in front of Deep Purple, electrodes on my head connected to my IS, which were in turn connected to the doctor's laptop. Orimura-sensei sat directly across from me while Dr. Nebata sat obliquely to my side. I was told to answer all questions as truthfully as possible.

"I bet your first question, Sensei, is how I knew the name of that black IS?" I guessed, leading off the debriefing.

"As well as how you got access to its mission objectives and other information," Sensei appended my assumption.

Dr. Nebata wrote notes into her laptop at quick pace, then focused her eyes on my faces, no doubt searching for more signs of my personality in order to determine the root of my second one-off.

"That black IS, Noctores Gospel, was a project I was working on back where I used to live. When I exhibited talent in learning information technology, I was…apprenticed to an –"

"Wait," Orimura-sensei interrupted me. She looked at Dr. Nebata, who shook her head sadly. "I believe we asked you to tell as much of the truth as possible."

"I didn't lie," I stated stubbornly.

"But you didn't tell us the full truth, either," Sensei objected.

"Look, I can tell you certain truths," laying my cards on the table. "There are certain things I am not allowed to divulge, just as I'm sure you are hiding truths from me. Remember that third caveat that you mentioned before:

"3. Once proficient in IS operations, I will volunteer for every mission IS academy recruits for.

"Originally, you explained to me that, with enough advance warning, countries would enlist the Academy's aid to avert natural disasters or research gone awry. But we aren't learning rescue operations, we're learning to fight. So, who are we going to fight? Is there a war coming up we just aren't ready for or something? Is the Academy going to take over the world or something?" I sneered, earning me a hurt look from the Doctor.

However, Orimura-sensei looked me in the eye, devoid of any emotion. Borrowing my monotone, Sensei explained, "I teach you to fight because that is the only thing I can teach you. Fighting doesn't only involve attacking, but both offense and defense. What you learn in my class can be adapted to any situation, from using your armaments to punch holes in a tidal wave to using your Aegis to deflect fragments from an explosion.

"However," her voice gaining warmer emotion, "IS Academy is devoted to bringing peace through IS. By teaching the representatives to learn together, we can foster more personal inter-country relationships. While in school, we can create anti-disaster task forces to help protect the world from Acts of God. We can do so much for this world through IS so that no one has to suffer things like kidnapping, or murder, or crime, or anything like that. So, don't ever insult me, nor this school, by saying such miserable things!" She emphasized her lecture with a stomp of her foot.

This was the true face of Orimura Chifuyu. She was thoroughly a noble person, someone I felt I should be able to trust. However, that deep fear of a certain shadowy organization still made me hesitant.

"Sensei, what you want to know is something that would put me to the top of Phantom Task's hit list if they ever found out. If we use this information poorly and they trace it back to me, they'll assume I turned traitor and exhaust every resource to get to me. I can't go back to them; I'll kill myself before I go back to them. Actually, if I could kill myself to avoid them I would, but that would mean betraying the people I love. So I have only one option right now: to continue on with life as usual, hoping to God they don't find out I assisted in destroying their IS," I confessed. "Unless you can give me another option, and make me believe it can work."

Sensei exhaled a long breath. The she looked me one again in the eye and asked, "Do you remember the first time you tried to scan me with your AR? Go ahead and try again, while listening to my story."

I clicked my fingers in that practiced manner, calling up a single screen. I focused on Orimura-sensei, just like I tried so long ago. Immediately a profile came up, and I over-laid the profile over Sensei's patiently waiting face. I followed along her bio as Orimura recounted her story.

"As you know, I was the first ever champion of the Mondo Grosso worldwide IS tournament using an older 1st generation IS. The sword that my brother uses is the successor to the blade I used; even the one-off turned out to be the same. With the same equipment, I entered the second Mondo Grosso, only to forfeit after reaching the finals. Do you know why?"

I didn't answer her. I could've answered her with the information from the AR, but I dismissed it by this point. Sensei took a sip from a flask that she must've kept hidden on her person somewhere. I could tell this memory was difficult to recall, pre-empting her would simply not do. I noticed the doctor disapprovingly shake her head at Sensei before returning to her computer screen.

"Ichika was kidnapped, obviously by someone related to the other finalist. We were orphaned at a young age; Ichika is incredibly dear to me. Therefore, after Germany tipped me off to his whereabouts, I rushed to rescue him, forfeiting the final match by default. In order to repay them, I retired from being a pilot in order to become a private instructor for the candidates for Germany's representative. If I said I didn't regret it, I would be lying to you. That's why I teach at IS Academy, so that no one else would even have the gall to try something so sneaky and underhanded again.

"But now, I know that someone tried to ignite a battle on campus. Not only that, but they attacked both my brother and another one of my students with intent for disregarding their lives, according to your report. All for the sake of gathering data on there IS. I need to know everything I can about who instigated this assault on my students. If you can tell me this, I promise you that I will do everything in my power to keep you safe from whoever this Phantom Task is."

She stared into my eyes, I returned the stare. She saw insecurity, I saw confidence. She saw inexperience, I saw practiced strength. She saw the shadow of death fade slightly from my face, I saw a bright future in hers.

"I used to be a member of Phantom Task. I was responsible for the voice ID system as well as the voice recognition for the IS AI," I admitted, not breaking my stare from Orimura-sensei's face.

Orimura-sensei swallowed, then reached out to rub my hand and said with gratitude, "Thank you for cooperating with us."

"I think I always meant to cooperate with you. That's probably why I even mentioned Phantom Task in the report," I confessed. "What do you want to know?"

Dr. Nebata jumped in greedily, "First, I want to know if you can replicate the system for us. Orimura completely decimated the body in the pilot's seat, so we weren't able to get any software data."

"Probably not," I replied. "The person who created the AI only had me program the voice systems. Under his direction, he had me create a codeword that he and I could use to access its mission objectives and terminate them, but it seemed that they somehow coded an even higher authority into it since I left."

"What about its core?" Dr. Nebata pressed on.

"Don't know anything about that. The IS was probably built piece by piece, then assembled at their main base, wherever it is."

"'Wherever it is'?" Orimura-sensei echoed.

"The AI system was copied on a disk and hand-delivered to Phantom Task by one of their personal carriers. All I knew was its codename, Noctores Gospel. So, I coded it to respond to its own name when spoken by my voice or the AI creator's voice."

"And that's how you found out it's mission objectives," Dr. Nebata finished. "From what I can guess, I don't think you're troubled by any death besides your own and Nefer's. Since the black IS threatened Nefer, you decided to try to save her, correct? You seem to have expended much effort and suffered tremendous pain to do so, even triggering a 1st shift. But judging from your report, the 1st shift didn't end up having to do anything with the fact Nefer was in trouble, or maybe it wasn't the main reason for the shift. Can you expound on that?"

I recalled what I wrote down in my report. "Are you referring to the responsibility I attributed to the name 'Sever Panganiban'?"

The doctor nodded. I took a deep breath before confessing,

"'Sever Panganiban' isn't my birth name. It's an identity I assumed under the direction of Phantom Task."

I cocked an eye to Orimura-sensei. "Is that drink you had whiskey or something strong? I'm going to need it to remember this correctly."'

She handed me the flask, saying, "There isn't much, but you're welcome to it." She added sternly, "this is a one-time thing though."

"That's fine, I just need the taste." I lied, downing the last mouthful in there, not enough to make me tipsy, but the bitter taste gave me the nostalgia to remember correctly.

I noticed Dr. Nebata type a few more notes, returned the flask with a smile to the once-again frowning Orimura-sensei, then continued with my own story. "I was born without a father to a mother who was as old as I am now." Dr. Nebata's gasp interrupted me. She covered her mouth apologetically, but still continued typing one-handed. I smiled gently at her, forgiving the disruption.

Amidst muffled gasps, I proceeded again, "My mother gave birth to me in a dirty area on the outskirts of Manila, the capital of the Philippine Islands. Unfortunately, due to the unsanitary conditions my mother contracted a fatal disease and died shortly after giving birth to me. Luckily, the midwife who delivered me took me in as one of her own. The first thing I remember clearly from then are the first words I understood from her, back at around 3 or 4 years old. She told me, 'You are not my child by birth. I adopted you after your mother died. However, she died in order to give you life. You must remember that you are living for two people now, and that you must find happiness for those who sacrificed for your sake. This includes me, too.' I remembered giving her a tight embrace that she returned enthusiastically. My next memory is being thrown out the window by the midwife, saving my life as the flimsy shack we lived in burned to the ground.

"I never found out why the house burned, but what I did know was that the midwife became another person who sacrificed herself to me. With those two lives weighing down on my childish legs, I made a decision to live no matter what. I joined a gang of other orphaned kids in order to live. They taught me to steal and to run impossible routes so that no one could catch up to me."

I gestured to Orimura-sensei, "The run you saw me do in the arena was nothing like what I did as a child. I scaled deteriorating brick walls using railroad spikes as drivels, jumped from windowsill to windowsill to evade angry shop-owners, and even used a palm tree to lower me gently from the rooftop of a three story building when I finished running across other close ones. It was a style of Parkour developed to aid a child thief's escape.

"And then, one day I slipped, crashing into a shallow pond after nicking something that looked valuable from a man in a black suit who had exited the local drug shop. Eventually, the man caught up and my gang-mates abandoned me to my fate. Seeing I was still alive, he checked me for injuries and then stuffed me into a sack. Along the way, I was knocked unconscious by a careless swing, but I awoke in someone's house."

I gave myself a break form speaking. Dr. Nebata continued writing in her laptop, while Orimura-sensei wore an obvious mask of controlled apathy.

"That someone introduced himself as X in my native tongue, Tagalog. The house itself looked like what I would now call an apartment, but completely unfurnished except for a futon and blanket. The windows were high up, but locked with a padlock, and the door had a keyed lock on both sides. This was a prison where I was forced to learn practical skills like English and Japanese, and for some reason domestic skills like cooking and cleaning. They also drilled basic school studies like math and science into my head, and when they found I was gifted in math and science focused on those. Every so often, X would allow me to practice my Parkour, but any attempts at escaping were rebuffed by bigger, faster runners. Usually, these rebuffs ended up knocking me unconscious, so I quickly learned to just practice.

"I studied for years. The only time I ever had 'fun' were when I was allowed to run. I wanted to quit so many times, but they threatened me with death. With two other lives counting on me to live for happiness for them, I put my best effort into learning these skills. I ended up forgetting most of my Tagalog in favor of fluent English and passable Japanese, but I became incredible at physics and calculus. Finally, one day the lessons stopped. X, who oversaw my learning and health, led me out of that room into another. Sitting in front of me in that small, dimly lit office was a man in a black suit. He never showed me more than his side, but I remembered a long scar running down behind his ear.

"The scarred man told me that he was a part of Phantom Task. From now on, if I wanted to live, I would work for them. My first assignment was to kill a girl named Sever Panganiban and assume her identity."

"That's horrible," Dr. Nebata said. I nodded in agreement. "...So who was the real Sever?"

"The original Sever," placing emphasis on the 'original', "was born to another Filipino woman, who died in childbirth. The father was an important bigwig from America, who officially went to the Philippines to visit relatives. Instead, he fathered this Sever girl before claiming amnesty and fleeing back to Hawaii or wherever he came from. Eventually, somehow Original Sever got traced back to this man after he had died, who had left his fortune to his daughter, whom you know as Nefer. Because Original Sever was biologically his daughter as well, the law decided that the fortune would be distributed between the two daughters. That's where I came in.

"She was a weak girl, no doubt due to malnutrition and other difficulties poor families in a third-world country experience. It didn't take much for me to end her."

I needed another pause, the bitter taste in my mouth quickly replaced by the disgusting taste of murder.

"It was then when I realized why I was kidnapped all those years ago: I looked almost exactly like the girl. Not only that, but because she was born poor, she had no documentation at all, making it extremely easy to forge documents giving me her identity.

"Then, we ran into a problem: her relatives. They would be able to identify me as not being her, so Phantom Task arranged for them to disappear. With no relatives, I was invited to their Hawaiian manor to grow up alongside Nefer, my long-lost illegitimate 'half-sister'.

"The day before I left for Hawaii, I took Original Sever's body and buried it in a local cemetery, all on my own with X's supervision. I inscribed Original Sever's full name on the tombstone, the first time I've ever wrote it down. As I left, I saw X take a sledgehammer and crush the gravestone, pounding it into rubble. I think it was there when I decided that I needed to leave this organization somehow."

"OK, OK, that's enough." Dr. Nebata terminated the conversation. Her face looked almost green in the dimly-lit room. "I'll schedule another meeting sometime in the evening after classes, so please get some sleep." She hurried out of the room.

Orimura-sensei assisted me up, then retrieved my crutches from the ground where I left them. She escorted me to the elevators, when I told her that I wanted to see Nefer.

"You were told to sleep," Sensei reminded me.

"I need to see her, Sensei."

"...Fine. Return to the infirmary within 15 minutes. The doctor will probably release you to classes tomorrow, so make sure you rest well."

Orimura-sensei left for the leacher's dorms as Yamada exited the elevator near me.

"Yamada-sensei," calling her by the title I thought she wasn't at all fit for. "What are you doing here at the dorms so late?"

"I could ask you the same question, thieving kitty. How's the IS?" she retorted.

"Broken, thanks to me," I winced with a sigh of resignation. I guess my teacher's assistant would know about the report as well, but it looks like she's not involved with the experiment. "I'm just going to say hi to Nefer before I head back up to the infirmary."

"Hey, don't be like that," Yamada tried to cheer me up. "If it helps, I know exactly what you're going through. I used to be a candidate for Japan's official representative like Orimura-sensei. I wanted to get as much practice as possible, too. Tell you what, I'll try to get permission to come and help you after dinnertime every-so-often, ok?"

With that, she briskly made her way to the room next to mine, 1025. With the crutches, I took a bit more time to get to my own room, 1026. I opened my door as I heard Houki declare loudly from the room next door, "Sensei, I'll move right now!" I turned around to watch her stomp off with a bag of hastily gathered clothes, then wait impatiently for Yamada to show her to her new room on the far side of the hall.

I closed the door and peeked inside the room. Before I got injured, Nefer would usually do her homework before me, then assist me when I came back late. Probably because of today, she threw off her schedule and did her homework late as well. I took a seat next to her, then started prodding her leg with my crutch. It took her a minute to finally stop trying to brush off the foot of my crutch and see me sitting there. She immediately squealed with delight and threw her arms around me.

"Hey hey, what's up? Just dropped by for a quick visit, I gotta go back soon."

"I'm fine now. I'm so glad to see you out of bed finally. You have no idea how much I worried."

"Well, don't worry, I expect to be able to go to class again tomorrow. Lets get lunch together."

"Sure, but first I got something important to tell you."

"Shoot."

"There's a big IS tournament coming up, open to all those that qualify regardless of whether or not they own a personal IS. If I beat you in the tournament, or if I qualify and you don't, I want you to tell me the secret you were going to tell me earlier today. I want you to consider me an adult and that I can be self-sufficient. And I want you to get off my case with the 'friend' thing."

"Hmmm," I pondered, grabbing my crutches and getting off the chair. "Fine. Then should I beat you in that tournament or qualify if you don't, I want you to either join a club or create your own. Also, I get to mess with you as much as I want."

"Accepted." Nefer held out her hand, her eyes brimming with confidence. I shook her offered hand, sending my own glow of confidence right back at her. Our fighting spirits clashed within the small confines of our dorm, before I turned to make it back before Orimura-sensei's deadline.

Outside, I noticed Honne and her friends standing around a corner, giggling to each other. Honne's friends left while Honne went the opposite direction, presumably to her own room.

"Hey, you're up finally-*murph*!" the girl said excitedly.

"Shh!" I shushed her immediately, covering her mouth with a free hand after discarding a crutch. "People are sleeping."

She nodded her head, then bent down to pick up my crutch. I released her mouth and took back my crutch. She gave me a quick hug with her too long sleeves.

"So, what's up?" I asked her.

"Ooh, did you hear? Houki-chan asked Orimu to go out on a date if she won the tournament coming up."

Orimu could only be one person.

A malevolent cheater appeared on my shoulder, visible only to me. In the dimension known as my conscience, time slowed to a crawl, Honne's words hanging in the air.

"We can use this," he stated matter-of-factly.

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

"Nefer doesn't like people, and she seems especially afraid of Orimura, right?"

"Your point?"

"Let me take care of this."

"Wait, shouldn't some kind of fairness angel or something come down to try to talk me out of this?"

"I'm the cheater, remember? I knocked him out a few minutes ago." He thumbed behind him, pointing out a black alley illuminated by a solitary lamppost. In the corner, flies surrounded the unconscious body of my fairness angel, stars circling around his head.

"Figured as much. Hey, I haven't seen you since the Scrabble game where we convinced Nefer a 'Qwijibo' was a fat, dumb, balding North American ape with a bad temper. How's the wife?"

"She's doing well. We're even expecting a young one in March."

"You know for a cheater, you have a very successful marriage."

"I'm at least partly based on your personality you know. I take love very seriously."

"Good for you. Pound it." I raised an imaginary fist to his, the action snapping me out of my reverie.

Commence Operation False Reward.

"I'm sorry, Honne, did you say Orimura would go out with the winner of the tournament?"

"No, I said that that Houki-chan asked Orimu to go out with her if she won the tournament."

"Wait, I know for a fact that you didn't mention Houki before. Are you sure Orimura didn't tell that to Houki or something?"

"You know what, that makes a whole lot more sense," Honne admitted. I just needed a little bit more of a push.

"Well, this is big news! The only guy on campus is offering to go out with the winner! You need to tell the whole school!"

"You're right!" Honne gave me a childish smile, then started knocking on almost every door to spread the news. Behind each one was probably another girl Honne knew. If birds of a feather flocked together, the rumor should be all over the campus by morning.

Operation Successful.

I crutch-walked over to the elevators, the malevolent cheater laughing like a mad man all the way until I finally went to sleep in the infirmary bed.

As expected, the doctor not only released me to class, but released me from the infirmary when I demonstrated to him that I could walk unassisted now. I still couldn't run, but I could walk normally. He recommended that I didn't try any Parkour for at least two months. His use of that term clued me in that he was definitely involved with the experiment, probably reporting directly to Orimura-sensei. That term was out-of-place, gone out of style with the advent of the IS.

I finally made it back to the class after a week and a couple of days of absence. I even ended up coming earlier than I normally do. At first, I thought I would get some looks and a bit more attention then I'd like due to the absence. However, a different thought was undoubtedly filling the heads of the young girls in the room.

It seems my hypothesis about Honne and her friends was correct. Every single whisper I heard was about the rumor I started with Honne's help. I think the best part was when the other two girls that I noticed last night asked Honne if she told the rumor wrong. Honne looked honestly confused, searching my face for hints. I kept my head down in order to hide the wide smile on my face. Nefer will definitely think twice about winning now.

Operation Very Successful.

* * *

><p>Class started with the introduction of a new transfer student, Charles Dunois. He drew a lot of attention from the girls. I looked up his information on my AR display.<p>

_Charles Dunois, 15 years old, IS Representative Cadet of France

_Personal IS: Raphael Revive II Custom

_Current Equipment: Vent Assault Rifle

_Garm Submachine Gun with Grenade Tube

_Saturday Rain Dual Heavy Shotgun

_Bread Slicer Tactical Knife

_Grey Scale Pile Bunker

_Psychological Profile: Not Available.

The girls squealed over the fact that he was another man in their class, that annoying noise once again causing a headache. For whatever reason, that headache disabled the display and I wasn't able to recall it again. I took a chance to look at the new arrival.

He was a short boy, especially when compared with either Orimura or me. He had incredibly feminine features, like a slim face, long blonde hair, a thin body, and a soft, high voice. Since he was short and had a high pitch, I figured he just hadn't hit puberty yet, and would bulk up quick.

Luckily for me, Orimura-sensei ceased the squealing in record time with a sharp "Stop talking!" that cut through the noise like butter. She continued on by saying we would have a practical training with Class 2, Nefer's class. Orimura responded by grabbing Charles hand and dragging him off to the arena locker room to change. The rest of us changed into our suits, mine already underneath due to the fact I would have IS training right after class. I had even applied the skin crème the doctor had me use to camouflage scars I received from the fight with the black IS. I waited for the others to finish, then followed them to the arena. On the way, I met up with Nefer, who happened to be near the representative from China, Rin. Nefer rubbed my back, silently asking if I was ok. I patted her head, letting her know I was normal. With that brief exchange, we followed Rin to the arena.

Once our combined classes arrived, Orimura-sensei singled out the English and Chinese Representatives, citing the fact both had personal IS. Neither of them seemed very happy with the idea, until Orimura-sensei mumbled something only those two could hear. Cecilia and Rin perked up immediately, then started pepping themselves up saying things I really didn't pay attention too. My attention was focused on a black shadow in the sky, drifting lazily in the sky. At first, I thought it was another black IS. I reflexively cupped my wrist, but suddenly remembered I haven't been given back my gloves yet since Deep Purple was still being repaired. So I stared at the growing dot from my place in the back of the ranks and files we stood in.

Suddenly, a ghostly wail started echoing from the sky, catching everyone's attention. The shadow I saw was a rapidly descending Yamada in a green IS, who apparently decided to break her fall with Orimura's body. Once again, a third crater made by an IS appeared on campus grounds. When the dust settled, we discovered that somehow, Yamada changed positions with Orimura, getting herself between him and the ground so that the AD could protect both of them from the fall. We also discovered that Orimura's hand wouldn't let go of Yamada's breast. So Cecilia assisted Orimura by firing a couple of very precisely shot lasers, delicately removing the offending limb. Rin also attempted to help, but by flinging a very dangerous double-bladed weapon at Orimura's head. As I saw her wind up, I attempted to sprint towards Orimura and tackle him to the ground, but my knees buckled at the first heavy step. I almost crashed to the ground, catching myself lightly with my hands. Luckily for me nobody paid attention to my tumble as everyone was distracted by the sight of Yamada quick-shooting the deadly weapon into the ground blade first.

"Orimura-kun, are you all right?" Yamada, no Yamada-sensei, pleasantly inquired. Such a quick recovery and accurate shooting was definitely not what I expected from the lecture-heavy Yamada-sensei.

"No...Thank you so much," came the rescued's reply.

"Yamada-sensei is a former representative candidate. That level of shooting is a piece of cake for her," Orimura-sensei informed us.

"It was a long time ago," Yamada humbly confirmed. "Besides, I didn't advance further than candidate."

"Okay, you little runts," Orimura announced to the two singled out girls. "Let's get started."

Orimura-sensei had Cecilia and Rin attack the quiet deputy teacher 2-on-1. From our limited standpoint, I'm sure the entire combined class figured that the two with personal IS would trounce the single, last generation Raphael Revive II everyone recognized Yamada-sensei wearing. Orimura-sensei thought otherwise, and with good reason.

Yamada-sensei blatantly allowed the girls the first attacks of the sortie. Cecilia launched her UAVs, shooting Yamada-sensei at various angles. I remembered back to my earlier attempt at using them, only able to have them ram a single target. Even my experience only gave me a glimpse of the complex controls and handling needed to utilize the UAVs like Cecilia did. But Yamada-sensei easily evaded each and every shot.

Rin shot a streak of orange fire from the balls on her IS Shenlong, one of the objectives of the black IS that I fought and nearly killed me. Sensei avoided that flame, then blocked the second using the guard on her arm.

Orimura-sensei had the new student, Charles Dunois, describe the Raphael Revive to the classes, but I didn't pay attention. I was watching the midair battle before me, 3 bright stars dashing in the clear blue sky.

Yamada-sensei danced and twirled through the sky, evading or guarding each and every shot, and even trading fire a few times. All the errant fire created small fireworks as they hit the shield protecting us. Then came the endgame. Rin stopped for just a brief moment, gauging the situation as Cecilia distracted Yamada-sensei with conventional fire. Yamada used her sniper rifle to shoot incredibly accurate shots, missing the blue evasive IS only by centimeters, as far as the cameras I hacked could tell. Each shot led a backpedaling Cecilia closer and closer to an unaware Rin, which culminated in a collision neither was prepared for. Taking advantage of their confusion, Yamada flew directly above them and traded her rifle for a grenade launcher. She pointed the barrel directly down, scoring a direct explosion on the two unlucky girls. Their tangled ISs fell chaotically, spinning every direction until finally stopped by the ground. After a moment, the smoke cleared, revealing a shallow fourth crater and two very irate teenage girls.

"Now you see the level of your deputy teacher. Be sure to address her with respect," Orimura-sensei advised my class specifically. Advice received, Sensei. "Now, we'll train in groups. The group leaders will be those with personal units. Now, split up!"

As expected, the majority of the girls gravitated towards Orimura and Dunois. The two Senseis immediately evened out the groups, redirecting most of them to Cecilia and Rin. I dragged Nefer over to Rin's group, as she was the only one with a personal IS she really knew. Rin and I nodded to each other, a sign that each of us recognized each other from our short introduction in the hospital. I took the opportunity to look up her information on my AR.

_Huang Ling Yin, 15 years old, IS Representative Cadet of China

_Personal IS: Shenlong

_Current Equipment: Souten Gagetsu Double Scimitar

_Ryuuhou Cannon

_Psychological Profile: Energetic, competitive, very extroverted, easily embarrassed by romance

Well, that didn't help. I really wanted to know what that Ryuuhou was exactly. It wasn't a conventional gun as far as I could tell. Now that she was on the ground, I was able to get a good look of her IS. It was violet like mine, but a lighter one. It had thinner limbs than most of the other IS, and it had its melee weapons magnetically attached to holding brackets on her back. The Ryuuhou I was wondering about took the form of two black balls with violet accents. I remembered seeing those orange flames coming out of those balls, but no sign of a barrel to aim them with. I guess it comes straight out of the hole in the middle of the ball, and the ball rotated to fire the shot. Well, with a name like "Dragon Cannon", I suppose it would have to shoot orange flame.

As I examined Rin's IS, Yamada-sensei distributed the small device that called an Uchigane unit from standby. I guess in this combined class, they weren't able to use the Uchigane the students were assigned, or something like that. This was ok with me, until I realized that I'll probably have to practice in an IS with its own AR system. I excused myself from the group for a minute to confirm with Orimura-sensei. While I did that, Rin and the other group leaders started the training, handing off the device to the first student and instructing them in how to summon it.

"Sensei, what will happen if I get into an IS with its own AR?" I asked her in a whisper.

"Don't know, treat this as another experiment," she ordered. "I'll expect a report later."

"Roger."

I walked back as the first girl climbed out of the IS. It was then that I realized I had no idea how to return an IS to standby mode. I also realized that Rin and Cecilia had also returned their IS to standby mode while I consorted with Orimura-sensei. The only times I've seen it happen were when an IS's AD depleted completely. So I asked the obvious question:

"Rin-san," I called out to the group leader, "How do you return an IS to standby mode?"

Rin opened her mouth to answer, but Yamada-sensei fielded this question before she got the chance.

"Once an IS achieves 1st shift, the pilot can use a thought command to return it to standby. These Uchigane won't undergo 1st shift, so we use a device to return it to standby. Unfortunately, that device is in the bay of each landing pad here in the arena, and it just won't work too well for this exercise. So we'll manually change pilots."

"Manually change pilots?" Rin asked Yamada-sensei.

"Here, watch this: I see a good opportunity over there." She turned to face Orimura and Houki.

"It's a problem for beginners," Yamada-sensei called out to the two. "Orimura-kun, please help her get in there."

She walked over to Orimura's group and had him call his Byakushi.

Then she had him lift Houki by supporting her weight by her legs and back. Immediately, the girls gasped, apparently realizing something I didn't. Well, at least it wasn't a scream.

From that position, it was easy for Houki to slip her legs into the IS and easy for Ichika to support her balance: a very practical solution to this dilemma. Following their example, Rin sought me out, saying, "All right, your turn. Sever-san, I think?"

"Yep." Rin called her Shenlong again, and I allowed her to carry my tall body the same way Houki was, then slipped my legs into the IS. It automatically configured itself to my anatomy, but the AR system wouldn't start up. I tried to start my own, but I couldn't call a display either. But on the plus side, it didn't hurt this time. I attempted to walk forward, but I only succeeded in shuffling its feet forward a few strides.

"Hmm, looks like you aren't syncing well with this IS. Well, I wouldn't worry too much, some people just don't sync well with certain IS. I'm the same way: the only IS I can move is Shenlong," Rin consoled me, giving my shoulder a gentle rub. She helped me climb out of the IS. Immediately after I got down, Nefer came by and cowered behind me.

Seeing this, Rin decided the next pilot was Nefer and attempted to get behind me. Nefer made sure to keep myself between me and her, so as soon as she came in front of me I grabbed her by the shoulders.

"How exactly are you supposed to beat me in the tournament coming up if you don't practice?" I pointed out to her.

Apparently, this made sense to her because she stopped moving. She held her arms out to Rin, waiting for her own carry.

"Sorry about this," I spoke for Nefer, rubbing her head affectionately "She's still not very good with people."

"Don't worry about it. I also used to know a girl like her," Rin responded.

"Oh yeah? What happened to her?" I inquired.

"She became the IS representative of an entire country," she proudly declared.

"Ha-ha," I laughed, genuinely impressed. "Looks like there's hope for you, Nefer." I added, with a good-natured elbow to her arm.

She stuck her tongue out at me, then resumed her pose waiting for Rin to carry her to the IS pilot's seat.

After getting into the IS, she took three very natural looking steps forward, then slipped out of the pilot's seat, landing lightly on her feet.

She stomped her way back to me, sneered up at me and remarked in a soft voice only we could hear, "Hope for me, indeed." Then her anxiety hit and she cowered behind me once again. _You know, Nefer,_ I thought to myself, _it's hard to take your challenges seriously when you do stuff like that._

* * *

><p>After practice, we had lunch. As I walked Nefer to the cafeteria, I noticed Orimura had rounded up Dunois, Houki, Cecilia, and Rin and started heading for the elevator. The girls seemed to be holding their own food, so I guessed they were going to have a picnic of some sort. They probably went to the roof for it.<p>

"You know, we should try that, too sometime," I commented to Nefer. "To picnic on the roof. We'll make some food and then enjoy the sun. Sound good?"

"Sure. I have some other foods I want you to try," Nefer answered. We ordered the lunch special, a meat dish I wasn't particularly impressed with, and choked it down fast so that Nefer could help me with the homework I missed due to injuries I received from the black IS.

After lunch, we returned to class, which consisted of another lecture from Yamada-sensei. This time, she lectured about the BUS slots and equipment IS used. Using her Raphael Revive II as an example, she told us that each piece of equipment an IS used was linked to an equalizer. An equalizer was basically an expansion unit inserted into the IS to enhance its abilities. Besides weapons, other equalizers included thrusters, augmented armor, and even sensors. Her Raphael Revive was equipped with a sniper rifle, grenade launcher, arm guard, and a knife for close range. It couldn't hold any other equipment, due to not having any more BUS slots. It's the reason she had to rely on the IS's own flight system rather than using retro-rockets to control her flight.

Because these equalizers were removable, most IS had equipment packages designed to be able to make the IS fulfill different roles. The only problem is that it would take time to uninstall the old package and reinstall the new one, so IS were prepared with a default package called a preset. This preset dictated the main use of the IS, allowing for both specialization and a certain level of flexibility for each IS model.

She illustrated this point by comparing the three top mass-produced IS models, Japan's Uchigane, France's Raphael Revive, and America's Gospel. Uchigane's preset consisted of a Katana and a rifle. The rest of its BUS slots were taken up by augmented armor equalizers and stabilizers, symbolizing the samurai's way of close range fighting, but having a long distance weapon. Gospel's preset consisted of a pistol, an assault rifle, and a grenade launcher, emphasizing the Americans' preference for firearms. The Raphael Revive's preset is similar to her setup that she used earlier, except she switched out her grenade launcher for the shotgun it used to have, and the arm guard for the stabilizer. The Raphael Revive was designed to be able to fight in any situation, from CQC with the knife to sniping with the rifle.

Finally, the bell rang and we were let go from classes. Everyone went off to do their own thing, while Sensei detained me so I could "serve" my detention. After sending Nefer yet another excuse, I proceeded to spend my first day out of the hospital and classes practicing.

* * *

><p>Sensei took me to R&amp;D 1, a humongous room with absolutely nothing in it. If I had to guess, it would take me a full minute to sprint across the room lengthwise, another to cross the room the other direction. The roof was about 20 meters high, supported by curved girders about 2 meters in height.<p>

"Where exactly did we hide this room?" I wondered aloud.

"It's on the floor plan," Orimura-sensei answered, turning around and dangling my fingerless gloves in front of her.

I held out my hands so that she could drop the gloves into them. I put them on, and I was filled with strength. This wasn't like before, where the IS was just a machine. Now, it was a part of me, and I was a part of it. Wearing these gloves made me feel like I could overcome everything. I felt like I understood the pride of an IS user.

"Please call for Deep Purple," Orimura-sensei instructed.

"Right," I replied, holding out my hand just as I did the first time I called out this IS, back when it was just a custom Uchigane. I concentrated on the new Deep Purple, recalling the 1st shift achieved by flinging myself outside the building. "I seek power, heed my call. Deep Purple!"

Cloaked in violet steel, I kneeled on the ground hugging myself in pain. "Hmm, it seems that every time you use this IS, you'll experience pain," observed Dr. Nebata, who had just joined us in the room. "According to your previous reports, this has happened even before the 1st shift, right? I'd guess that you're experiencing some feedback or something from when your AR implants connect to the IS sensors. That sad part is I have no idea why this happens. Well, looks like you'll have to live with it."

"Joy," I deadpanned, rising off the floor. "Alright, what are we going to do now?"

"First, we're going to explore your second one-off. The one that lets you copy other's IS parts. I want you to concentrate on Cecilia's Blue Tears. See if you can copy the entire IS, but pay special attention to the UAVs," Orimura-sensei directed.

I concentrated on the UAVs first. It was easy enough to call to mind the four tiny options, the wings they docked with, and the two hidden tears Cecilia used to blow away Orimura the first couple of weeks into the term. I heard a noise like sandpaper rubbing something into nothingness, and I saw that my shoulder guards had dematerialized, but the Blue Tears UAV package was successfully copied.

"Good job, now the rest of the IS," Orimura-sensei encouraged.

I tried to focus on her IS, calling to mind the heavily armored legs and spindly dextrous arms, but did not hear any changes.

"I don't think I can, Sensei," I reported down.

"Looks like one of the limitations is that you can only copy one part at a time. How about Orimura's sword?"

"Yukihira 2? Sure." I focused on Orimura's katana, imagining each and every fold in its retractable blade. However, I didn't feel anything materialize in my hands.

"You can't copy specific equalizers either," Dr. Nebata recorded into her laptop.

"All right, let's test out the Blue Tears copy." Orimura-sensei continued.

"Wait a minute," I interrupted, "Isn't the Blue Tears UAV an equalizer in itself? How come I can materialize the Blue Tears but not the Yukihira?"

"Technically, you materialized the shoulder guard of the Blue Tears IS itself," Dr. Nebata clarified. "The docks for the Blue Tears are parts of the frame itself. Based off what we've analyzed and what you reported, we hypothesized that this one-off ability is the ability to copy a single part of another IS and used whatever is installed in it."

"Well, then I guess this proves it," I agreed.

"We'll see," responded the doctor.

"Alright, Sever, make the UAVs shoot their lasers at the far end of the room. There should be a target coming out of the ground now."

I aimed for the rapidly ascending target, then sent a mental command to the options. No reaction. I called up its weapon status screen.

"Sensei, according to this screen the options don't have a link to my weapons system," I informed the two.

"Looks like the UAVs can't shoot lasers then," Orimura-sensei remarked. "Try the two missiles."

I focused once again on the target. The two biggest Tears near my hips opened and launched their missiles at the targets, obliterating it.

"Well, that works," I exclaimed, glad to have a piece of functioning equipment.

"We're not done yet," Dr. Nebata added. Four more targets appeared on the back wall. "Please use the options to strike the four targets simultaneously, then return them to their docks."

According to my sensors, the targets were about 40 cm from the wall, not enough to have them pop through and curve back to me, so I imagined each option piercing its own target and then flying back to the docks on my frame. I pointed with both hands and commanded the UAVs "Fly!" Just as I imagined, each one took off in a straight line, however, after piercing the targets they crashed into the wall behind and exploded. With the loss of the UAVs, the frame I had copied dematerialized, my original shoulder pads rematerialized in the Tears place. The weapon screen I had left on announced that my Aegis was online.

"I think I can only use Aegis when I'm not copying another IS," I observed. Orimura-sensei nodded her agreement.

"How did you try to control the Blue Tears?" Dr. Nebata asked me, still focused on my other one-off.

"Well, when I fought the black IS, I imagined them all attacking its cannon so that it pointed up. I figured that if I imagined more motions, they would follow them. In this case, I imagined they would go straight, pierce the target slightly, then return. Instead, they flew at full speed towards the points I wanted them too. It looks like I automatically revert back to the original form when the part gets damaged."

"So you can only give simple commands right now. Alright, for today's practice, we'll have you get used to using Blue Tears. Try materializing another copy of the UAVs, please," Dr. Nebata ordered.

Again I materialized the UAVs, but something was different. After I re-summoned them, an alarm went off, saying that my shield energy had dropped to 50 units. A little bit ago, I was at my max of 500.

"It looks like re-summoning a broken part costs you shield energy," Dr. Nebata noted. "In that case, I have a solution." She reached down to a panel near my feet and pulled out a long cable. She connected it to a port on my right thigh, and my shield energy refilled itself up to 500 again.

"Good thing we're in an R&D lab," she reminded me. "This room was used to test the weaponry of new IS, and thus had these recharging cables built into hidden panels on the floor. As long as you are tethered to one of these, you shouldn't have to worry about your shield energy."

With this limitless source, Dr. Nebata had me shoot out the UAVs like kamikaze planes, having me inscribe complicated routes, stagger launches, carrying speed, and other concerns she had with my ability to control them. At the end of the hour-long training, we determined that the replicated Blue Tears UAVs had the following limitations:

_They would only fly in a straight line. After deploying them, they would not turn. Wherever I sent them, they would go at maximum speed and won't stop until they collided with something. _(Since the room was enclosed, eventually they would collide with something. Next time we'll see what happens if I shoot them outside.

_They could not shoot lasers.

_They would only fire all at once, even if I specify a single target. Thus I could queue commands and assign targets to each Tear before sending them all out.

_Although they were still homing missiles, the Blue Tears missiles could not be controlled by my orders either. Rather they would proceed in the shortest path possible to the target I specified.

_Should any Tear be destroyed, I would immediately un-equip the entire Blue Tears IS shoulder frame. In order to re-summon it, I would need 70 units for each tear and 85 units for each _missile.

"In other words, in my hands the incredibly flexible Blue Tears UAV package, a smart and versatile weaponry package the English undoubtedly spent huge amounts on money developing becomes a mass-based fire-and-forget weapon?" I summarized.

"A _crude _fire-and-forget weapon, akin to throwing explosive javelins at somebody," Orimura-sensei expounded.

"And one that isn't viably reusable," Dr. Nebata finished off.

"Blah."

"Ok, I guess you're feeling tired. We'll end today's training. Rest up, and don't forget to see the infirmary doctor for your check up later," Orimura-sensei reminded me.

Remembering what Yamada-sensei told me earlier, I used a thought to return Deep Purple to standby mode. I imagined the IS becoming just an emblem on my right glove. All of a sudden, I felt a great weight lift off of me. I also felt gravity immediately grab hold of me. I fell just a couple of feet down, but my legs were still weak. They buckled from the impact and I fell hard on my behind.

Dr. Nebata suppressed a giggle as I struggled to get up under primarily my arm strength. This was going to take some getting used to.

* * *

><p>Luckily, the doctor was available to do our check up earlier than the appointed time. I told him about the two times I fell, about the weird feeling of not being able to use my legs properly. According to him, the muscles in my legs were horribly torn after getting lacerated by the fragments of the cannon I destroyed. While a good amount still allowed me to walk, high impact activities like running and jumping were going to be difficult, as my muscles haven't finished healing. However, some people heal faster than others, so he gave me a very conservative estimate on my recovery time. We decided on a biweekly check-up schedule, that way we could be sure I could return to normal activities as soon as possible. While this wouldn't affect my IS studies and practice, I was getting worried that I wouldn't be able to go back to my little acrobatics camp and just run around.<p>

But since I can't go to my little camp, I decided to do the other thing that happens around 5 in the evening.

"Hello everybody," I shouted. I was immediately swept into the air by a familiarly short, but slightly pudgier man that only vaguely looked like the head cook. "Hey, I said 'everybody', remember?"

He replied sadly, "I am everybody..."

He spent the next ten minutes telling me the terribly sad story of how he lost his beloved cooking class.

Everyone ditched club to train for the tournament coming up.

Really.

I'm not joking, he took ten minutes to tell me this one thing. All I could do was try to console this man as he cried deep rivers of tears into my blazer. In truth, I felt a bit guilty because I'm the cause of the great interest in the tournament. But something caught my eye from the door. Once again I caught the itch, and I couldn't help but to scratch it.

"Don't worry, don't worry, they'll come back. They're just taking some time off for the tournament coming up." I made sure to keep my smile away from him.

"What could be so important about the tournament?" he whined. "What could be more important that trying new food?"

"A date with Orimura, apparently," I dryly remarked.

"You mean that first-year male IS pilot?"

"That's the one. A whole bunch of stuff happened, but apparently the guy will take you on a date if you win."

"REALLY?"

A girly shriek echoed from the door.

"You know, I figured you would have heard something about this already, Rin," I observed.

Quickly recovering, Rin answered back "I've been busy with class representative stuff. Also as the class rep, I usually don't listen to gossip like this. Did he really say that?"

I honestly answered, "No, but I hear he agreed to going out at the very least. The rest must be girls expanding on the rumors, as usual."

"How interesting," the girl murmured, tapping the tips of her fingers in anticipation. "You know, I hear your deputy teacher Yamada-sensei is doing some drills down at the arena. Maybe I should help her, as I do have a personal IS."

Like you're fooling anyone.

"I'm sure she'll appreciate the help, Rin."

She tossed a jovial hand back at me in parting. As she left, I called out, "Nefer? Weren't you coming in for club?"

Nefer sheepishly poked her head into the room, ducking back out to allow Rin to skip through, then poked her head out again.

"You know, I'm feeling in the mood for pasta. You know any dishes, Nefer?" I coaxed her out of hiding with her favorite type of food.

I walked over to the oven and started browning some garlic, a key to one of Nefer's favorite dishes.

"Oh no, I can't get over to the pantry to start prepping the ground beef. Oh, who can help me in this time of dire need?" I sold it as best as I could. As predicted, Nefer finally came over, set her books on the table, then went into the pantry to get the other ingredients for the sweet spaghetti I planned on a only a nod between us, the cook set up a pot and filled it with water, salt, and a bit of oil and began to boil the noodles al dente. Meanwhile, Nefer started cutting vegetables at a blistering pace, while I started frying the ground beef with the garlic.

"You're fine with the mushrooms and onions, but why'd you bring a pineapple out?" I pointed out to her.

She gasped in shock, midway through cutting the pineapple into manageable chunks. I took this to mean my ruse worked, but I decided to verify it with my own two ears.

"You aren't still thinking about that rumor right, Nefer?"

"Well, it's just..." she struggled to form complete sentences. "What do you think about it?"

"What?"

"...Dating...Orimura?"

"Not a chance," I responded flatly.

"Why?" she asked, sounding confused.

"You saw Rin. They are over 100 girls just like her at this school, all way more willing than I am to land him as a boyfriend. I mean, not only is he famous for being the only male, he's also strong since he destroyed that black IS. I really don't need to deal with all of that right now," I explained, cutting a spear from the half cut pineapple and chewing on the point.

"Well, what about...me?"

I poured the chopped onions Nefer cut into a frying pan and quickly stir-fried them with the mushrooms. I tossed everything together and added tomato sauce, just enough to coat all the fillings with sauce, and then a little more for Nefer's own personal taste. Then a thought struck me.

"Hey Nefer, this is the part where I mix in the banana ketchup, right?"

"Right..." she followed, hearing this before.

"Well, what if I added pineapp-"

I got cut off as Nefer quickly finished off the sauce by adding the banana ketchup, the sauce that made the spaghetti sweeter than the traditional recipe.

"We're not doing that, Ate. I only had to learn _that_ one time."

"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad."

It actually was, but I forced myself to like it due to my pride as a cook. Unfortunately, my love of cooking forced me to experiment with new flavors and spin the old ones, often with horrible conclusions. This spaghetti was not one of those conclusions.

"Well, it's finished now," I mourned, dejected now that my chance to experiment was rejected.

"Yes it is," the cook happily agreed, setting out the plates and making sure his plate was closer to the food than mine or Nefer's.

"So that's why you're more pudgy," I teased him.

"This is happiness. Nothing to be ashamed about," he retorted.

We ate up all of the pasta, the cook easily putting away half of it himself. After eating, he offered to clean up while Nefer and I did our homework. As we walked back to the dorm, I answered Nefer's hanging question.

"I think you should date him if he asks you," I told her.

"What?" she questioned, confused at my timing, probably.

"Orimura. He's seems like a good fellow, and judging from the rumors he's comes through in a pinch. If you were with him, I'm sure you'll pick up some good habits too."

"I guess..." she trailed off, then started walking in silence.

"But you know, if you want to go out with him, you don't need me to prove your equality to me. Go right ahead and ask him out! I'm sure it'll solve a lot of problems if someone just asked out that guy and got him to say yes."

"It's not like that!" she cried out, dropping me with a well-placed kick to the back of the knees. While I picked myself off the floor, I saw her get in our room and slam it shut. I made my way to the door, only to discover she had jammed something into it, preventing it from opening.

"Well damn," I muttered. I sat outside the door, doing as much homework as I could with the limited materials I brought from class. This only took me a half hour, but I still had a crap load to do in the dorm. Reasoning that Nefer would eventually let me in, I messaged Yamada-sensei to see if she would accompany me to the arena tonight.

* * *

><p>Yamada-sensei beat me to the arena, and she even had the device for summoning my "group's IS". After summoning it and saying a silent apology to the IS on my hand, Yamada-sensei took some time to show me how her IS switched packages, switching the rifle, grenade launcher, and guard for greaves and gauntlets similar to what I had equipped, and a IS sized survival knife. She proceeded to beat into me the basics of hand to hand fighting, since I've never studied martial arts before. She showed me a basic fighter's stance and demonstrated simple strikes that could be executed from them. She said that the basis of what she knew revolved around allowing your opponent to make the first move then countering appropriately. She never really excelled in close combat fighting, but she was confident that she knew enough to teach me something usable. When I got clearance to use them, she promised to train me in variable weapon combat, the style she did excel in.<p>

However, the current teaching material plus the current teaching method equaled a ton of lost shield. My alarm chirped, Yamada-sensei stopped the training and asked me to walk through the device in the landing bay to return the Uchigane to standby while she waited by the exit. We split up shortly, when I was hailed by an unknown voice.

"Would you mind practicing with me a bit?" A girl emerged from the shadows in a grey version of my own IS pilot suit.

"Unfortunately, my IS is in rough shape. It would probably be best if I just returned it to standby and gave it back to Yamada-sensei."

Suddenly, there was a flash of light that lit up the dark launching pad. It turned around, seeing the girl summoned her own black IS. The shape was all different, but something about that color made the hairs on my neck stand up. She shot the gun floating at her right shoulder at me, purposefully missing me by inches and dissolving harmlessly in the shield that covered the arena, even on the runways.

"Well, since you extended such a warm invitation..."

I took the fighting stance Yamada-sensei taught me, my offhand and respective foot leading with my body turned for stability. The mysterious girl lunged at me, brandishing a beam saber poised to thrust. Like Yamada-sensei showed me, I used the thrusters in my gauntlets to turn quickly, pivoting on my front foot and causing the the sword to pierce empty air. With the power stored in my coiled body, I threw a punch at my opponent's midsection, right where the stomach met the chest. However, my fist never made it. Right before I was going to activate the thrusters on the gauntlet, the fist froze in space. I tried to open my fingers but not even that with move. I looked at the girl with shock, her face was incredibly close to mine.

"You smell delicious," she breathed softly. I took a good look at the girl's face. Definitely a European of some sort but with pitch perfect Japanese. However the thing I noticed most was an unearthly gold glow behind her left eye's eyepatch. Then she smiled an demon's smile, charged up that shoulder gun and blasted me in the face. The rest of my energy immediately went down to zero while my body flew through the air. I noticed that my trajectory took me through the device I wanted to use and it minimized my IS back to that small device. I landed in the bath, luckily the door was open and the water full but cold.

"Is this seriously the power of an Academy student? I thought I would have a challenge on my hands," she pondered haughtily, reminding me of a certain other European before someone hit her "nice" button. She laughed at me in derision, but promptly gasped as I got out of the pool. The water washed away my skin creme, exposing my myriad scars in the dim moonlight.

"I can do a whole lot more."

Once again I took that fighting stance, switched so that my dominant hand was forward and displaying the emblem of my personal IS proudly. However, I never got a chance to use it as Yamada-sensei snatched the device I held in my other hand, then stood in front of the mystery girl, shielding me from her view.

"Whoever you are, please leave my student alone. Otherwise, you'll have to deal with me."

Another flash of light, and Yamada-sensei's Raphael Revive appeared once again in the fighting stance she taught me.

"Humph," the girl muttered and flew away.

Yamada-sensei returned her IS to standby mode and helped me up. She noticed my scars, but decided to not ask me about it. I gratefully accepted her silence as she helped me dry off and change into my uniform. She escorted me back to the dorm, got Nefer to unblock it, then assured me not to worry about the homework right now and that I should go to sleep. I followed her advice, and woke up early the next morning.

* * *

><p>On the way to morning lessons, I told Nefer what happened after she blocked me out of the room. She apologized over and over again, taking em a few minutes to calm her down before heading into class. At the beginning of class, Yamada-sensei nervously announced to the class, "So, we have more happy news today."<p>

Totally believed you, sensei.

"We have another friend joining our class today. She's a transfer student from Germany, Laura Bodewig-san."

A girl with long grey hair entered the room. She was very petite and small of chest, and she wore our blazer but with a pair of baggy pants and high boots. However, I recognized her eyepatch even without its glow. My blood seethed as I stared daggers at this girl, but her attention was focused elsewhere.

As always, the girls gossiped about the new girl, but Yamada-sensei quickly shut them up, something very out of character for her.

At a command from Orimura-sensei, Bodewig performed the traditional introduction, saying her name with a distinct German accent.

Then, she walked towards Orimura's desk and backhanded him with a good amount of force. The slap echoed in the large room.

The shock of this action helped me calm my anger. Rather than anger, I felt a sad resonance with her. I found myself thinking, _this girl is seriously imbalanced._


	6. Chapter 6 Keeping In Character

Ch. 6 – It's Really Hard to Keep the Characters in Character

Author's Note: Yay! I got even more reviews!

Alright, time for an update: I gave my friend a printed copy of the chapters I already wrote minus author's notes and such. I adjusted some parts of the earlier chapters based on the reviews I got, but unfortunately I couldn't completely get rid of the Mary Sue aspect in the second chapter. But it was a nice setup to the fall of the third chapter, to the thruster-assisted atomic suplex in the fourth. So I left it as is.

But, basically what I'm saying it this: she liked it overall. Didn't really like how I treated her OC Nefer, but she wants to know what happens in the end. So now I have three reasons to finish: her curiosity, my readers' curiosity, and my desire to always finish what I start. Also, I got an idea for a new fanfic that doesn't have any OCs, thank god. But first, finish this one!

So here we go, Chapter 6. Also, just now realized that Orimura's IS is Byakuhiki, not Byakushi. Spelling changes, ho!

* * *

><p>Chapter Start<p>

* * *

><p>"Hah!"<p>

I dug my left foot into the ground, creating a strong pivot to dodge Honne's sword slash. With the energy from the turn, I threw a right straight at Honne's left temple, now in front of me due to the pivot. Right before I landed the hit, I activated the thrusters in my dominant right hand's gauntlet, creating a flare of instant acceleration.

However, still unused to the sudden acceleration myself, my hook was thrown slightly off course, landing a glancing blow to Honne's chin. It wasn't enough to send her flying, but I did shock her quite a bit. She reeled to the side, losing her footing and crashing to the ground. I took the chance to jump at her, then drop a thruster-enhanced heel into her stomach. But the quick-witted Honne rolled out of the way. My heel created a small but pronounced fifth crater in the arena floor, raising a cloud of dust into the air and clouding my vision.

I looked towards the direction Honne rolled in, only to be pelted with a barrage of small bullets. I blindly shot my own pistol, squeezing a couple of shots in her direction. Since I didn't hear the distinct ping of bullets ricocheting off her AD, I protectively held up both of my arms towards my neck. My guess was rewarded as Honne's sword clanged off my right gauntlet. Before she could angle her sword to simply slide off my guard and continue her assault, I pivoted once again, rotating so I faced her head on, with my knees buckled to support both her weight and mine. With her sword perfectly perpendicular to my gauntlet, Honne froze in mid-air, albeit spinning slowly due to her attempt to twist away. This instant of immobility was all the time I needed.

I brought down my left fist on the fingers of Honne's IS. Just like with a human, the force caused the IS's fingers to open. Using the gauntlet as a fulcrum, the force from the downward strike caused the sword to spin away from Honne's grasp. Then I swung my right fist, its burden thrown away, at Honne's exposed, smiling face.

I had forgotten that she shot at me before, a fact she happily reminded me of by shoving her assault rifle in my face and squeezing the trigger. Without any guard, I used the thrusters in my feet to get me away from this dangerous foe, but not without taking heavy damage to my shield energy due to the hit locations of those critical shots.

The alarm blared in my ear, one that only I could hear through the AR system. I knew that my shield energy was dangerously low, about 50 units or so. The next attack, even a strong glancing blow would be enough to diminish my energy to 0 and lose the duel. I was struck by a sudden thought: that I could hack the arena controls and use them to display Honne's shield energy and prepare a strategy. However, doing so would cost me time and concentration, two things I couldn't spend since Honne was dashing as fast as she could to the sword that now separated us, reloading her rifle on the way.

Before she could recover her sword, I accelerated at maximum speed, using every single thruster to boost me towards my opponent. This technique was called Ignition Boost, and it was also Orimura's speciality. Even though this technique was taught to all of us, Orimura was the only one whose IS specialized in the maneuver. When properly used, it causes an unwary opponent to mistime her counter. When Orimura used it, with his plethora of inertial dampeners and thrusters, his opponent didn't have time to counter. But with my IS spec-ed as it was, I was damned close. My speeding IS tore through the air, creating a vacuum that sucked up the loose dirt now trailing behind me, the G's pressing me against the slim barrier of the AD. To create enough distance to counter my approach, Honne abandoned the sword and jumped a mighty step back, pouring all her energy into that final evasive maneuver and giving her time to level her reloaded rifle at me and shoot her last prayer of bullets. A few shots ricocheted off my IS, making that distinct pinging noise I wanted when I shot my pistol at her. However, those weren't enough to drop my speed nor my energy levels to 0. With an annoying, high-pitched alarm going off in my ears, I slammed into Honne's midsection, tackling her across the arena floor. With the added weight, our IS naturally crashed into the ground, but I kept pouring on the thrust. I dug a trench through the ground using Honne as a plow, finally crashing into the shield that served as a wall for the arena's stage.

Then, the shock of the crash cause Honne to finally loosen her grip on her rifle, smacking me in the forehead. My shield energy decreased to 0, causing my IS to return to standby. I fell on top of Honne's soft body, whose IS also returned to stand by, probably due to slamming into the shield. A comedic Double Knock Out to finish off our flashily epic training spar.

Yamada-sensei fished us out of the trench, both of us feebly resisting Yamada-sensei's gentle help. As we were dragged out of the trench, we heard a resounding cheer from our small group of students who were doing training spars together. After combining both classes 1 and 2 again, the three administrators split the combined class up into three groups: combat drills group instructed by the teacher from class 2, training spars group administrated by Yamada-sensei in her Raphael Revive II, and those with personal IS supervised by Orimura-sensei.

Also, in preparation for the first-years inter-class tournament coming up in two weeks, the upperclassmen were stuck doing in-class assignments. Therefore, even those first-years who had to share could still use a training IS to practice. I was surprised to see that some of the other Uchigane's where preset with the same equipment I currently used, which is why nobody batted an eye to my equipment. I guessed that they probably found out earlier when I was stuck in the infirmary for a week or so.

Yamada-sensei congratulated us on our duel and then sent us to the nearest maintenance bay to recharge our IS's shield energy. She then prepared the next two students to duel while Honne and I made for the west runway and the charger that waited there. After we stuck the devices into the charging bay, we took a break at the end of the runway and laid down, letting the breeze cool off our bodies.

"You're really flat-chested for such a tall girl," Honne teased.

Immediately, I covered up my chest with my arms; my breasts' small size always a sore spot for me. "So what?" I shot back. You're just as flat-chested, you know?"

Instead of cowering as I did, she stretched back in an imitation of a famous modeling pose, which looked ridiculously odd for a girl with her cute, childish face to attempt. I suppressed a grin as she cattily replied, "But I'm short and cute enough for something like that to just add to my charm."

I guffawed out loud and challenged, "Well, let's see how much that charm helps you in our next duel." With that, I held up my fist with the blade of my palm facing Honne.

"Challenge accepted," she responded, pounding my gloved fist with her own.

We stared out onto the arena, watching as Orimura and Dunois started doing their own spar under the supervision of Orimura-sensei's watchful eye. We saw Orimura slash at Dunois with his sword in its unfolded form, Dunois easily catching it on his armguard, similar to how Yamada-sensei guarded against Rin's Ryuuhou the other day. After trading another attack with Orimura, Dunois leapt into the air, followed closely by an advancing Orimura. Dunois turned and summoned an assault rifle, just like Yamada-sensei did and shot at Orimura. Deflecting the light bullets with his AD, Orimura charged Dunois. He narrowly evaded Orimura's attack and started circling the sky at high speed, Orimura slowly catching up to his inscribed arc. Finally close enough, Orimura slashed a mighty blow at Dunois, who evaded by performing such a tight loop that it made my stomach turn thinking about the G's it pressed on him. However, the maneuver worked, giving Dunois time to summon a high powered sniper rifle and shoot an unaware Orimura in the back. To his credit, Orimura had enough time to raise a guard with his offhand, but with the high-powered rifle's accurate shots both canceling the speed of his charge and his shield energy, it was only a matter of time before Orimura lost the duel.

"Well, that was a big letdown," I commented.

"Why do you say that?" Honne questioned.

"I thought he would last a bit longer. I mean, Dunois uses the same IS as Yamada-sensei and Orimura already saw how she fought. I figured he would guess that Dunois fought similarly and would fight with a strategy to counter that."

"But, did Chakkun fight exactly like Yamada-sensei?" Honne pointed out, using yet another pet name.

"Not entirely," I acquiesced, "but when Dunois pulled out the sniper, Orimura kept charging, even after he saw that the rifle's shot effectively canceled his charge and decreased his energy. Why didn't he get out of the way? Like, fly off to the side or something?"

"He's a guy. I'm sure all guys are like that, charging in headfirst without a real plan," Honne answered off-handedly.

"Ugh, I hope I never have to rely on him in a fight then," I remarked.

"Well, how about me, then?"

"You do know how to fight, that's definitely true," I observed. "But, I've never actually had to rely on anyone before really."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," I started, wondering how much I should tell her about my past.

Noticing my silence, Honne asked me, "What's wrong? Aren't we friends? I know that you're a nice person in general, but I thought after marathoning Gurren Lagaan, we became friends. I mean, we had such a good time being silly and shouting hot-blooded quotes, even if you couldn't move at the time."

"Well, it's just that before now, I never had any chance to get close to anyone besides Nefer," I confessed. "My childhood was basically study, study, study with different tutors, then after I met Nefer it was study, study study some more with more tutors and Nefer," I continued, deciding to fudge the truth a tiny bit. "If I'm a nice person, it probably comes from having to take care of Nefer all the time."

"Oh?" Honne goaded.

"Well, I met Nefer after she had an accident. Basically, I'm her long-lost sister, and I formally rejoined the family due to the circumstances surrounding the accident."

Honne gasped at the cliched shonentastic truth I embellished. Her eyes begged me for more details, but before I could continue, Yamada-sensei interrupted us by flying up to the runway.

"Are you girls having a nice chat?" she asked.

"Sorry for the delay, sensei," I apologized.

"That's fine. We'll be rotating with the drills group, so please recover your IS and join the rest of your group."

We saluted, grabbed our IS from the charger, did a quick diagnostic and re-summoned our IS. Followed by Yamada-sensei, we rejoined our group, then separated into groups based on our current equipment. But before we split, I told Honne, "We'll, let's grab lunch some time and I'll tell you more, I guess."

She nodded enthusiastically, then took a vacant position opposite one of her friends, equipped with a sword. I took another vacant position, opposite the girl who took my seat way back in the beginning who was also equipped with gauntlets and the like. We took turns performing our relative striking skill using the person opposite us as a target. As I struck towards this bespectacled girl, I wondered if what I have between Honne and I could really be considered friendship.

* * *

><p>After our drills, Yamada-sensei led us into the runway to return our IS to standby, give them back to Yamada-sensei, and walk back to class. The students with personal IS were allowed to spend a little extra time to hone their abilities due to their unique IS, while the rest of us had an extended lunch. As predicted, the majority of the girls left to do some more practice in there is. However, hunger's call was too much for me, and I joined a small number of girls I didn't know from class 2 to the cafeteria. I introduced myself and gave them a smile, but other than a polite reception they extended no offer to join them. So I grabbed whatever the cafeteria had and headed for the roof, where I ate alone. After lunch, a helpful cloud drifted along so that I could take a nap. Then my trusty alarm woke me up just in time to walk to class.<p>

"So, where did we leave off again?" Dr. Nebata asked me, during my "detention" after class.

"Sever made a grave for the real Sever, then this 'X' person destroyed it with a hammer," Orimura-sensei answered for me.

During this training session, Orimura-sensei and Dr. Nebata had me go through the entire directory of ISs in the database. I was asked to copy each one, expecting only one part to show up. Apparently, even my copying one-off had it's own limitations: I could copy only from IS I've scanned with my AR. Therefore, I could only copy IS Blue Tears' shoulder guard, IS Byakushiki's right arm guard, IS Shenlong's left arm guard, and IS Raphael Revive II Custom's chest guard, along with anything equipped to their BUS slots at the time of scanning. Also, in regard to Byakushiki's right arm, while I could call up the Yukihira 2, I couldn't get it to fold out, nor use it's one-off. However, it was just as usable as a katana, just twice as long.

After experimenting for an hour, Dr. Nebata had us stop early so we could continue with the psych evaluation from before. We sat just like before in the same seating arrangement, when she asked the question. I was in the midst of painfully stripping off the IS, each part felt like a syringe being removed. It was very unsettling to realize that even though I still felt it, I was gradually getting used to the pain of equipping Deep Purple. Hence why Orimura-sensei answered for me, probably reading from my last submitted story report.

I sat down on my chair and started rubbing the spots where those imaginary needles pulled themselves out of my flesh. Dr. Nebata took a bunch of sticky sensors and, just like last time, plastered them in specific locations on my body, connected them to my IS behind me, then connected them to her computer to view my brain waves.

"Right," I started, this time fully prepared to tell my story without the aid of alcohol. "After the day I buried that girl, X escorted me to the plane and I flew to Hawaii, where I finally met Nefer. At the time, she happened to be in the ICU due to the accident that killed her parents.

"I didn't hear much, probably due to the fact I was still only 10 when I got flown over. But, as far as I knew, they were driving home together from some play when a Hummer crashed them over a cliffside. As the car tumbled, her mother covered Nefer, effectively absorbing the force caused by the bouncing car until it finally stopped. Her dad died at the scene, while her mother died at the hospital. Nefer, already a weak girl, was brought to the ICU immediately and was saved by the skin of her teeth.

"As I said before, without a will the law gave Nefer's Father's fortune to his closest relatives. It should have been Nefer alone when some clerk discovered Original Sever's existence. Plans were made, the switch was made and 'Sever' went to Hawaii to pick up her share of the inheritance.

"Before I left for Hawaii, I was given two objectives:

Befriend Nefer to the point where she considered me family.

Support her in any way possible to get her into IS Academy.

"At first, I thought I was free of Phantom Task's influence. However, when I got to the hospital, not only did I recognize one of the lawyer's aides as X, but I also recognized some of the tutors teaching Nefer were the brutes who kept me fenced in while running.

"So, watched by undercover Phantom tasks agents I'm sure they wanted me to recognize, I spent everyday taking care of Nefer. From the year of physical therapy she needed to start walking again, to cooking each meal for her, to even learning the subjects she was deficient in to help her study. I got so good at xtradimensional physics and information technology that I was even assigned to assist with the IS Noctores Gospel, but I already told you about my involvement with that."

"So, is that all?" Orimura-sensei asked me.

"I can go into more detail if you like," I offered.

"In that case, how did you feel about Nefer?" Dr. Nebata inquired.

"Nefer? Well, honestly in the beginning, she annoyed the hell out of me. She had low blood pressure in the morning, so it took her a while to get up. Since she was injured, I had to do basically everything for her, even bathe her with a sponge! But every time I finished a chore for her, she would give me the biggest smile she could and say, 'Thank you, Ate.' She looked so incredibly happy when she said those words that I gradually came to enjoy those meaningless chores. I especially loved cooking and started experimenting with making foods differently, to mixed success.

"But now, I think I honestly love her. I keep thinking that if she wasn't by my side, I would just grow up to be this cynical, cold-blooded killer of a small child."

"Why exactly would you think that?" Orimura-sensei inquired.

I sighed. When I rehearsed this story in my head, I felt this was an obvious question. But even in my head, I was still hard to admit it to myself.

"I think I enjoyed it. Killing the Original Sever."

The room was quiet, the only sound was the monotonous buzz of the electronics around us.

"Are you sure that you enjoyed it?" Orimura-sensei asked me, obviously unbelieving of my statement.

"No. I remember crushing her head over and over again with a block of wood, her voice crying for mercy before she finally breathed her last.

"But what makes me think I liked it is that the last time I thought about this, Nefer told me I had a weird smile on my face. Ever since she told me that, I've been trying to be this perfect, good person with a future. I strived to give each person I met a smile, even a fake one in the hopes that it would become real later. I tried to be nice to every single person I met, even if they impeded me for whatever reason. I kept myself groomed and clean so that people would be friendly to me, and I to them. And I tried to excel in everything I did so that I could get that thought out of my head. So that I could stop being that murderer and be Sever Panganiban. But, its still there. Out of the blue, something will remind me of that tragic day and I'll instantly remember it. The only thing I can hope for is that no one is looking at me when I do."

"Are you sure that's all of it?" Dr. Nebata attempted to comfort me, her arm around my shoulder as she tried to support my now slouching body.

I looked up at her, gave a sad smile and replied, "All that I had prepared. If there's anything else, do you think it could wait until the morning? I'm really tired."

"You're excused," Orimura-sensei accepted my request. "But remember, the past is the past, the future is yet to come. Right now, not only do you have strength to support your future, but you have allies at this school that will help protect your future and everyone else's. I'll see you bright and early for tomorrow's class," she ordered me.

I nodded my thanks, and left the room. In all honesty, I didn't believe the intent behind Orimura- sensei's words, but I was grateful for the words themselves. I decided to head for the dorms and take a nap until dinner.

* * *

><p>I woke up with Nefer at my side with a bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup, just like I used to cook for her whenever she was sick.<p>

"I thought you weren't feeling well when I saw you in the sleeping in your bed, so I decided to make this for you. How does it taste?" she inquired.

I sat up, picked up a spoon, and took a steaming spoonful of it. I examined it from all sides, watching as the oil in the soup created small bubbles in the broth. Each and every vegetable was cut finely and evenly, and the chicken was pulled into manageable chunks that fit a large tablespoon.

"It's pretty good, but you made it a lot differently from mine," I observed. "Did the cook help you with this?"

"A bit," she admitted. "I remembered how yours smelled, but I couldn't get it just right. Eventually the cook was able to get it to this point, and I used seasonings to get the smell right."

I sipped a bit, then asked her, "Did you taste it?"

She looked down guiltily and said, "Smell isn't enough is it, Ate? I guess I can't cook as well as you, still."

"No, no, it's not that. It's just I'm impressed you made this smell by combining different seasonings. Mine doesn't use any seasonings at all, just veggies and meat."

Her mouth dropped open in shock. "So that's how you did it!" she exclaimed.

"Did you put in some oregano and such before putting it all together?" I guessed.

"That's it exactly!" an excited Nefer shouted, almost spilling my tray with her jump out of her chair.

"But, for a sick person, this is an utter failure," I reported to her frankly, stirring the soup with an idle hand..

"...What do you mean?" a despondent Nefer responded with a quivering lip.

"Seasonings typically have a good deal of salt in them. I don't know which ones you used, but altogether they have a really high sodium content. Basically, it's not very healthy," I replied with a soft hand on her shoulder.

She pouted down and away from my eyesight. Seeing her looking so sad, I decided to do something drastic. I slurped down the now sufficiently cooled down soup, disregarding the saltiness of the entree.

"Definitely not my taste, but I can definitely taste the effort you put into here. Next time, I'll give you a hand and make the effort taste good too." I rubbed her now alarmed face to calm her down.

"Now for some water. I'm oddly thirsty now," I remarked aloud, pulling open the door.

Nefer responded by kicking me the rest of the way out. My weak legs buckled and I went tumbling into the hallway, stopped by the opposite wall in an inverted position. Nefer threw a bottle of water outside with me, then slammed the door.

"Looks like you're not doing to well, Seberu-san," a familiar male voiced called out to me, using the closest Japanese syllables to my name to sound it out.

I rolled onto my side so that I could look at Orimura's face gently smiling at me. I smiled back and accepted his offered hand, grabbing his wrist. He grabbed the mine in return and pulled me to my feet.

"You know, it's weird," I started, "I'm so used to being taller than most of the other people here."

"Likewise," he agreed. "You're the first girl my age I've met that's as tall as me."

I knelt down, picked up the water bottle, and offered it to Orimura, offering "Want a swig?"

He opened the bottle, dropped a big gulp of it into his mouth being careful to avoid touching it, then returned it to me. I took my own gulp, sucking directly from the lip, before bidding him farewell. Temporarily evicted from the dorm, I once again messaged Yamada-sensei if she would like to train with me again.

* * *

><p>Once there, I encountered a person I did not expect to see.<p>

Laura Bodewig stood upon the North runway, the crescent moon casting a dull but radiant light around her. She monologued to herself, saying words I couldn't hear from the arena floor. Whatever she said, it seemed to give her conviction as she removed her eyepatch, showing me that her golden glow came her left eyeball itself.

"But first, I intercepted a text message sent using a cell phone number that was used by an suspected Phantom Task member," she announced to me. "Reading the contents, I decided the best course of action was to meet the sender here in place of Yamada-sensei. Of course, she did not come to any harm, she just never received your message," the German with the black IS reassured me.

I just stood there, dumbstruck as she summoned her IS, shredding her clothes in the process. She dashed at me in full battle regalia, a sword extended and poised to stab me in the heart.


	7. Chapter 7 Yay! More Fighting!

Ch. 7 – Yay! More Fighting!

Author's Note: I never really liked this episode. So I went crazy and put a crapload of original content in here, hopefully all of it plausibly fitting with the canon. Tell me what you think!

According to the Wikia, they never named any of Laura's weapons except for the AIC, so I came up with ones I thought would be cool. Readers, please correct my spellings.

Also, for some reason I'll call Sever's left hand the offhand every now and again. Just know that that's Sever's left hand. I guess I just like using offhand rather than left :P

* * *

><p>Chapter Start<p>

* * *

><p>Normally, when I summon Deep Purple, the pain caused by the equipping is so harsh that it drops me to my knees. It usually took me a few minutes to recover. However, with this deadly charge approaching me, I needed to recover in an instant. So I gambled my life on mind-over-matter.<p>

I yelled as hard as I could, building up tension and stress in my body. The stress flooded my body with adrenaline and serotonin, sharpening my senses and getting ready to dull the pain of equipping my IS.

Immediately before Laura's black IS made contact with my heart, I called out Deep Purple with a scream inside my head. Like some kind of guardian demon, Deep Purple warped xtradimensional space to painfully wrap me in its embrace, shredding my own uniform. In the instant of the summoning, five IS parts connected to my implants, searing my nerves like a wildfire.

But my gamble paid off: In that instant I lifted my violet arm and blocked the stab with my Aegis, immediately stopping the blade's momentum. Physics then followed: with a single point effectively locked in space, the black IS rotated around where the point of its saber met my Aegis. The pilot's face swung towards mine, her surprised gasp meeting my expectant fist, buzzing with adrenaline.

To her credit, Laura got an arm up in time to guard against my Aegis-enhanced fist. But with the reaction from my punch negated, Laura received the full brunt of the impact. Laura went flying through the air twice as fast as a normal punch, spinning wildly and firing her thrusters in every which way to recover as soon as possible. I followed her at my max speed without using my thrusters. Using earlier calculations done when I realized the outcome of an Aegis punch determined that my max unassisted speed would be more than enough to catch up. Not only that, but the black IS was heading directly towards a shielded wall. Once it hit it, I would be able to pound it back into the wall and freely pummel it into oblivion. However, right before it hit the wall, it suddenly stopped spinning and suddenly stopped right before the shield. Already committed to my attack, I poured on the speed by adding my leg thrusters into the mix. My fist almost reached the face of the machine before me, when my own movement was suddenly arrested just like hers was, but not in control of it. I floated for a minute in mid air, my body not listening to my commands. I saw Laura's face twist into a disgusting smile. She leveled her shoulder gun at me, then slowly charged it to full power. I started crunching my body into a small ball, just as slowly. Laura's smile just kept getting wider and wider, reveling in the helplessness she brought upon me.

She was wrong: there was no helplessness. As she let loose her gunshot, my arms and legs finally locked together to form the Grand Aegis. The shell detonated on contact with the barrier, overpowering it and sending me flying backwards. I used my thrusters to regain my balance and take stock of our locations. The black IS had jumped back onto the North runway, again bathing herself in the pale crescent moonlight. I took advantage of the battle's lull to look up her info.

_Laura Bodewig, 15 years old, IS Representative Cadet of Germany

_Personal IS: Schwarzer Regen

_Current Equipment: AIC (no info)

_Attentäter Guided Dagger

_Katastrophe Heavy Rail Gun, Modified to Shoot Explosive Shells

_Dunkelschwert Beam Saber

_Dunkellanze Beam Lance

_Psychological Profile: Not available.

Why doesn't this thing ever give me something besides weaponry? It kinda makes sense that there would be no psychological profile, but if I had that I could at least banter with her. But then again, I had a pretty good idea what it would say.

I double-checked my shield energy, raising a disappointed eyebrow when I learned that I lost 150 units of energy from that single attack. I felt like I overestimated my Aegis' ability to negate force.

"Hey!" I hailed the silver goddess of war. "Look, I'm not a member of Phantom Task anymore. Don't you know the rules to becoming a student here in the first place? In the Academy Guidelines Appendix, it states right at the beginning, 'Students, while enrolled in this school, will not be affiliated with any nation, group, or association,'" the relevant section displayed on my AR.

"But it doesn't say anything about terrorist organizations, now does it?" she retorted with a streak of hate a mile wide.

I wanted to reply with my own childish retort about how she inherited that trait from her German ancestors, but something told me being serious would be my only out from this situation.

"I renounced my association with those people when I found out that the school will protect me from them. Even now, I'm cooperating with everything I have to combat them."

"Lies from a filthy terrorist. If that were true, then how come all information on you is classified, even up to your obvious Uchigane recolor?"

That threw me for a loop. I quickly tried to verified her claim, only to discover that the even with my classification clearance, I couldn't read my own information. Even my picture was blanked out so that no one would know what I looked like.

"But, but," I stuttered, "I don't understand. This just makes me more suspicious. What the hell is happening?"

"I'll tell you what's happening, I'M GOING TO TAKE YOUR HEAD!" With that yell, she launched the wired daggers. Six golden knives trailed by six black-lit wires flew through the large space between us, spreading out like a firework from my vantage point before converging on my location.

With no time to think about my circumstances, I immediately pushed back my hesitations and focused on the battle before me. Remembering what happened with Honne in this very field, I stomped the ground with a thruster heel, sending up a column of dirt that hid me from her sight. Using the recoil from that non-Aegis-enhanced blow, I jumped straight up. A heavy shot pierced the column of dirt, creating a vortex that sucked the particles in and then burned them to ash. That same shot almost slammed into my crotch, the speed of my jump letting me barely clear the speeding hurdle. The shell crashed into the shield behind me and detonated, definitely what they called a shield-piercer and definitely deserving of the name "Katastrophe". One hit from that at max speed would tear even a fully charged IS into scrap, not to mention the kind of mess it would make of the pilot. I immediately thanked whatever force gave me my Aegis.

The explosion pushed me forward, so I took the opportunity to ride the wave of kinetic energy toward my opponent. However, once airborne, I was a sitting duck, waiting for the black IS to take potshots at me with her Mach 7 rail gun; what the instruments in my IS estimated the speed of her rail gun to be. Even with my Ignition Boost, I wouldn't be able to evade a precisely aimed explosive shield-piercer fired at 7 times the speed of sound in the enclosed space of the arena. The first shot was a determined guard on my part, whereas the inability to see me and a lucky jump saved me from the second. And even if I could get my Grand Aegis up in time, she also had those guided wires, which probably had a great more maneuverability then they appeared to.

But she wasn't the only one who was armed. I pulled out my IS-sized magnum, now named Longshock after I discovered how it worked. I swung open the cylinder and ran the bullet chamber through the Aegis on my offhand. The 12 chambers glowed green like my Aegis, then disappeared behind the hammer pin when I closed it with a clack. I shot a couple of green bullets directly into the barrel of the black IS's rail gun, assisted by the sensors on my IS.

Right before the first bullet connected, the black IS shot its third rail gun shot, probably intending to shatter my flimsy projectiles and bring me to a grisly end. Instead, the bullet lost a good majority of its momentum. With my second shot, it arrested completely, hanging in midair for the briefest of seconds before crashing to the ground. As I expected, it exploded upon hitting the ground, sending the black IS scampering for cover. This bought me a few seconds of time to safely descend from where I was. Upon landing, the plume of dirt the explosion caused faded away enough for the black IS to gauge my position and shoot its daggers at me once more. Again, the six golden knives flew at me like a firework, then converging at my neck. At the last possible moment, I used a thruster boost and a good kickoff to duck low under the convergence point and speed the rest of the way towards the black IS. The black IS held up its hand, probably poised to make a counter attack. I also noticed through my IS sensors that the six daggers were heading towards me at a speed much faster than my own. If the knives didn't get me, the black IS would with any of its own CQC weapons, or maybe even the freeze ability it had.

So instead of flying head first into her, I shot the gun from my hip twice: once at my enemy, once at the ground. The shot fired at the IS stopped in midair, then exploded weakly, probably due to whatever stopped it in the first place. The second shot smashed into the ground and exploded violently, the precise effect I wanted. When I shoot a loaded Longshock, it propels a heavily compressed ball of air within a thin Aegis film towards my opponent. The shield not only prevents the contents from exploding prematurely, but it also negates the outside wind as well as gravity. Without these factors, it was a straight shot from Point A to Point B, a perfect weapon for a stationary target. The only problems were its relatively slow speed and that if it encountered something bigger than dust and dirt, the Aegis would serve its original purpose of negating forces normal to it. This would use up the shell's energy, allowing the air inside to escape without force.

The first two shots slowed down the rail gun to a complete halt, although I was prepared to fire more bullets should the shell not be completely arrested. The third dissolved in whatever weapon that black IS used. The fourth propelled me barely over the head of the black IS, still keeping my forward momentum. I still took damage from the attack, but I had effectively bypassed the defense of the black IS. I drew Longshock from its holster fully and sent a fifth bullet into the center of mass of the black IS.

The timing couldn't be more perfect: the golden daggers chasing me were being held at bay by the defensive weapon of the black IS. The bullet burst in its back rather than dissipating due to the significantly larger mass of the target, not doing too much damage, but propelling the IS forward, tumbling over and over. It lost control of the daggers, which fell to the ground and got dragged by the rolling IS. I noticed that the black-lit wires were being reeled in towards the black IS, so after landing, I laid prone and shot the last seven bullets into the rolling IS. Each shot pushed it further and further along the arena ground until the last shot smashed it into the far wall, coincidentally the same wall I got pushed into.

Tangled in its own wire, the black IS struggled to recover with as much success I did when trapped in its freezing effect. So I rushed up to it with Ignition Boost, not wanting it to simply cut through the wire with its beam weapons and be free. I reached the black IS just as it got its arm out of the tangled mess of wire. I kicked it in the side, laying it out on its back. I noticed the rail gun sticking out of the ground like a dowel, and decided to get rid of it first. Bracing my foot on the machine's head, I wrenched it out of whatever xtradimensional joint it was in. Sparks erupted from the link in imaginary space, drenching our little side of the arena with unwanted light. I straddled the machine's waist, raised the rail gun over my head and slammed it into the face of the death machina under me. A spark of light flashed between the rail gun barrel and the IS upon impact; the body shuddering grotesquely below me. Again, I raised the rail gun high over my head and brought it down upon the robot's face.

Crash! Kill it. Ha!

Crash! Or it'll kill me. Ha-ha!

Crash! It can blow me up after piercing me. Ha-ha-ha-ha!

Crash! It can strangle me. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Crash! It can slice me. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Crash! It can stab me. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Crash! I need to kill it! Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, KILL!

And then the black IS faded away. With it, the rail gun I was using as a crude instrument faded as well. I swung empty air towards the robot, the inertia causing me to fall forward onto my arms: face to face with a barely conscious girl, her body unblemished due to the IS's AD, but her face full of hate and fear.

I shook with horror in my IS, the joints clacking together making a creepy knocking sound. I was about to fall on top of her when I was kicked to the side. I allowed my body to roll limply away from the German antagonist. I landed with my face up, so I rolled it towards where the thing that kicked me was. Through teary eyes, I watched as the IS picked up the limp girl from the ninth or so crater I made in the arena ground. Then, I recognized a certain familiarity about that IS. I blinked the tears away from my eyes, feeling too weak to do it properly.

It was an unmanned IS exactly the same as Laura's Schwarzer Regen. All the way up to the rail gun, which it leveled at me and began it's painfully slow charge. Up close, I could see small bars light up in sequence as the rail gun neared its full charge. I drew up my knees and arms to create another Grand Aegis, but the large green shield wouldn't appear before me.

"See, Laura," a familiar male voice echoed from the loudspeaker in its face, "Look at how much damage you inflicted on her with only a prototype IS. She can't even bring up that green shield. I'm so sorry I had to borrow it for a while. If you had the real Schwarzer Regen, I'm sure you would have easily finished the job."

Crap, that was only a prototype IS? If the prototype was able to deplete my shield even with Grand Aegis with a single attack, what would the real thing be able to do?

I really hoped that was a bluff to scare me a bit, but I realized that he wasn't talking to me, but rather was reassuring the defeated girl of her strength. Her ego probably took a good hit, but I doubted it would last long. I had pummeled her into a state of half-awareness. The familiar voice immediately took advantage of it by praising her strength with an almost hypnotically soothing voice. I'm sure she'd be even worse when she woke up in the morning.

But as that soothing voice pointed out, my Grand Aegis wouldn't engage, nor would any of the smaller Aegis appear. I tried to get up, but my legs wouldn't respond.

"You are the most superior IS pilot in the world," the voice cooed. It even lifted a hand to stroke the girl's long hair, as if comforting her. "Instructed by the invincible first Champion of the Mondo Grosso Orimura Chifuyu and supported by the talented Black Rabbits, born with heightened senses and an indomitable sense of Justice; you are the first of a select few individuals with the power to protect the world from power-hungry terrorists like _her_." It sneered at me, as far as I could tell through the black helmet it called a head.

The rail gun was fully charged by this point, so the IS carefully flew up and onto the South runway behind it. Once again, it leveled the rail gun at max charge towards me.

"Good bye, Sever."

My eyes pried themselves wide open as I finally recognized that voice through the tinny loudspeaker, but it was too late as the rail gun discharged, using thousands of volts of electricity to propel an explosive steel shell at 7 times the speed of sound directly into my face.

Time slowed to a crawl as I saw memories from my past: I remembered running from shops with stolen food in my mouth, I remembered first meeting Nefer in the hospital's ICU ward, I remembered the 1st shift that turned Uchigane Custom into Deep Purple, I remembered being kidnapped and trained for what I know now. And then I remembered smashing in the Original Sever's face with a piece of wood. I remembered that look of fear, helplessness, and pleading for mercy, which quickly blended into Laura's face full of hate and fear. The faces were eerily similar, but it convinced me of one final truth: I enjoyed the rush of taking someone's life, even if I felt I was justified in doing so.

I wanted to give up at this point: a final penance for the life I destroyed just to take it over, a final penance for the life I tried to take even if she was trying to kill me first. If I died now, I wouldn't have to worry about Phantom Task catching me to torture me for the info I've gained. If I died now, I wouldn't have to worry what Phantom Task had in store for the future. If I died now, I wouldn't have to hurt every time I got into an IS. If I died now, I wouldn't have to worry about being some perfectly nice girl for the sake of forgetting my fear of being a killer because, well, I wouldn't exist anymore.

But all of these thoughts washed away with a simple last memory. I remember the last time I tussled with a black IS, taking enough damage to put me in the hospital for a week. I remembered a crying Nefer sobbing, 'I thought you were going to leave me. I thought you were going to leave me like Dad and Mom did. I couldn't lose you, so I prayed. I prayed hard, day after day, to every deity and religion I could think of. I just don't...so don't die. Don't die. Don't die...'

Suddenly, my Aegis appeared just in time for block a good amount of the damage from that shot. Unfortunately, my legs weren't quite in position to create the stronger version, so my four arm shields did as much as they could to shield me from that devastating attack. I went flying through the air, the force of that one attack sending me careening to the other side of the arena directly under the North runway. I slammed into the shielded wall like Honne was earlier, camouflaged by the shadow overcast by the runway above me. I looked towards the South runway, but the German IS and the German girl had already left, not even bothering to check for my body. I dismissed Deep Purple, its alarm ringing in my ear due to the almost 0 level of my shield energy. Tomorrow, after class, I would recharge my IS while in "detention", then practice some more for the tournament. But first, I'll get some shuteye, at least 30 minutes.

Thanks to my alarm, I only slept for the 30 minutes I wanted to. Luckily, the only damage done to the arena were the craters I keep making in the ground. I spent a painful hour feebly kicking and pushing dirt into those holes to create some semblance to the how it was before the fight. On my way out, I saw a sign outside the arena saying "Closed for Maintenance" that I didn't see before. Laura had probably posted that after I entered so that no one would witness her death-match with me. She probably also raised the shields that suppressed both light and sound so we wouldn't attract the school's notice. I used my AR to hack the arena, lowering the shield and the maintenance sign so that normal people could use it again. Luckily, no one was waiting for it to reopen, so I was able to return to the dorm unnoticed, but tired. I tried the door to my dorm and it swung open, Nefer having allowed me back in due to what happened the last time she locked me out and I trained with Yamada-sensei.

Nefer was already asleep when I limply plopped down on my bed. My homework was nagging at me from the corner of my desk, but my body ordered that rest be the higher priority. I obeyed my body and fell into a dreamless sleep. I was going to have a busy day tomorrow.

* * *

><p>The following day, I deliberately overslept my alarm, turning it off after a few rings so Nefer would wake. Like always, she was never good in the mornings, suffering from low blood pressure. Therefore, as soon as she heard the alarm, she robotically got up, dressed herself, ate a piece of bread from the pantry (in reality a drawer I hid snacks in), and was probably halfway out the door when she realized I wasn't next to her. I amusedly watched all of this from underneath my covers as she walked back inside and sat on my bed.<p>

"Ate, Ate, wake up..." she sleepily droned. Maybe she should be the one to sleep in, but I kept that thought to myself as I pretended to just wake up.

"Sorry, Nefer," I apologized. "I'm not feeling too well, can you do me a favor and give this note to my homeroom teacher, please? I'm going to get a bit more sleep then head up to the infirmary around lunch time," I requested, giving her the note I wrote while planning out loud.

She yawned, "Right, Ate."

She left for classes in that cute half-asleep manner. I hoped to God that she got the note to Orimura-sensei. This should give me an unsupervised three hours to find where that IS came from with the added bonus of no one but Orimura-sensei knowing I was "sick". Specifically, I hoped that Laura would interpret it as being either injured or even dead, the latter probably being the best outcome for me.

After I took a shower, I put on my IS suit and walked to my next-door neighbor's door. I shoved that door back as far as it would go, then pushed up. With the extra slack, I was able to worm a plastic card into the crack. Releasing pressure on the door, I played with the card until I finally got it to push back the little tab that keeps the door closed. I quickly rifled through Orimura's drawers, finally finding a spare uniform. As I noticed before, our heights matched almost perfectly, except even he had a lot more meat on his chest than I. I closed his door and returned to my room. I pulled up Orimura's profile on my AR, then grabbed Nefer's makeup kit from under the bathroom sink. I've never been good at using this stuff, but after an hour of trial and error, I was able to match Orimura's skin tone and hairstyle to the point that, at a distance, I looked enough like him for people to not recognize it was actually me. Turning around, I realized that the collar on his jacket wasn't high enough to cover the start of my ponytail, which fortunately wasn't orange anymore. So I decided to improvise, tying the men's jacket over my shoulders like a cape, hiking up the collar even more. I tied the long ponytail into a coil and hid it under the heavy jacket. I looked at myself in the mirror, not at all pleased at the reflection. So I left the coil in the ponytail, wore the jacket normally, and hoped to God no one remembered he actually had a neckline in his hair.

I tested my legs' strength with a light jog out of the dormitory. It wasn't a full recovery as I couldn't sprint without tripping, but I could probably jump well enough. The jacket pressed my ponytail into my back, hopefully giving the impression that I had wider shoulders than I really did, but nary a soul was out to give that impression to. I jogged to the arena, making use of nearby trees and bushes as cover, just to be safe.

Once there, I used my AR to access the log files of the facility. I poured through the records until I finally found the latest entries. As expected, I found an access entry by Sever Panganiban at the time I accessed the system to put down the maintenance sign and lower the shields. However, there was no record of anyone accessing the system to put up the shields, an illogicality that basically screamed "I was hacked!" Whoever accessed the system was a pretty poor hacker if they couldn't even change the access log to something less suspicious.

However, it gave me no information towards what I wanted to find, so I gambled on the off-chance the system was coded with a redundancy protocol. Basically, if an encrypted copy was made that the hacker didn't find. If it existed, there would be a high probability the hacker didn't tamper with it since he left such an obvious clue.

With the access granted to me through Orimura-sensei's experiment program, it was relatively easy to open up the encrypted files and find this redundant log. Then I struck gold: whatever method the hacker used to gain access to the system listed his IP address in the log. Unfortunately, it meant that the hacker had access to the network, although from looking at the logs, he hadn't gotten a chance to play with it yet.

But since he had access to the network, that meant he could also be accessed by the network. I searched for his IP using a tracker program I found in the IS Academy database, one of the subroutines of my hacking ability. While within the Academy's network, these programs where nigh unstoppable, at least from what I could tell. Within seconds, not only did the program trace the IP address, but it even gave me the GPS coordinates of their last known location. Whoever coded this things was light-years ahead of me in the programming department. I even found myself wondering how they expected me to code on top of this!

I cross referenced the coordinates with a map of the area. According to the map, the last known access point was done remotely on the shore of a nearby cove. It just so happened that this cove was barely within the range of the Academy's network. I assumed that at the first sign of trouble like a cyber-attack or something similar, the hacker would simply move out of range of the network. As for hacking attempts on his part, all he had to do was queue his programs and let them run. But, if I was right, I had a plan that would at the very least let me confirm his identity.

I checked the time, then jogged as fast as I could to the R&D lab to recharge my IS. I only had an hour before I planned to meet the doctor, and until I finished this errand I didn't want anyone to have any suspicions of my activities. While my IS charged, I decided to do some of the homework I should've done last night. Using the AR to pull up my questions, I wrote my answer down on another screen for me to transcribe them on paper properly. On hindsight, I probably could've looked up the answers themselves, but I'm sure a test will come up and I'll be completely unprepared for them since I cheated. Also, Orimura-sensei had a penchant for knowing when I was using my AR in class and would send me a message to learn properly.

When my IS finished charging, I stopped distracting myself with homework and self-reflection and checked the time. Forty minutes before my meeting. I went outside to a place in the park that was sufficiently hidden by foliage. I abandoned Orimura's uniform, promising to to the owner in my head I'd return it back to him.

"Deep Purple!" I called out, bracing myself for the sudden pain equipping this IS gave me. An instant later, I was on the ground, panting heavily. Getting used to the pain, my ass. The only time this IS didn't hurt me was when it ran out of shield energy. I swear, whenever I feel like I'm getting used to this suit it slaps me away with a jolt of agony.

After spending a precious few minutes waiting for my nerves to cool off, I bolted for the ocean as quick as my IS would let me without using my thrusters. Without them, Deep Purple was actually pretty quiet. At this speed, it only took me 20 minutes to reach the ocean's edge. I waded into the water, pleased to note the AD also shielded me from the water itself, at the expense of shield energy. I continued to wade in until I was completely submerged, but the rate increased to about a unit per second. Since my total energy was 600, I could only stay underwater for 600 seconds or so, an amount that rapidly dwindled as I double-checked the effectiveness of my weapons in the water. I checked my Aegis, which activated normally, followed by my Longshock. I swung open the cylinder and swept it across an Aegis like normal, only to feel resistance from the gun and my Aegis not loading properly. I smacked myself in the head, stupidly losing even more shield energy in the process. Water was an incompressible fluid, so it wouldn't load properly.

Now with only 500 seconds left, I used my thrusters to power my way through the water until about a mile off the coast. At 200 seconds left, I made my way to the coast, walking on the continental shelf about ten feet below the surface. Then at 100 seconds left, the alarm blared in my ear. The sudden noise I should've remembered would come up caused me to panic, sending up a wave of turbulence that undoubtedly clashed with the gentle motion of the ocean. My cover blown, I leapt out of the water, catching a familiar beam saber in my Aegis. I responded by using my free hand to Aegis punch the catapulted Schwarzer Regen across the water and into the cliffside so hard it made an indentation. Without the shield in place, the eroded stones crumbled and compressed to allow the flying IS to create a cavity with its body. However, I wasn't finished yet.

With a quick spin, I loaded my Longshock with the Aegis and squeezed off a shot at the black IS to immobilize it with the compressed air. Holstering my gun, I shouted into the air "Blue Tears!" With that command, my shoulder guards were replaced with the Blue Tears' guard. I immediately launched the four UAVs at the helpless black IS, each one not only breaching the AD of the IS, but piercing the extremities of each IS limb. For some reason, they didn't explode, probably due to the soft rock absorbing their energy enough. Instead, they functioned like nails, but with an explosive surprise.

"What are you doing here?" that familiar voice demanded from below me.

After realizing that this was the prototype Schwarzer Regen I fought before, I turned away from the dark crucifixion before me to find the owner of that voice. And after 3 whole long years, I met X again.

The last time I saw him, he was Nefer's lawyer's aide, perhaps the one who clued the lawyer into Sever's existence in the first place. Before he left, he entrusted to me and an older member of Phantom Task who taught Nefer information technology the assignment of creating the AI and voice recognition system for Noctores Gospel. He was a tall, white man who spoke Tagalog fluently for whatever reason. He was incredibly smart and patient with me while learning, but was incredibly violent when he punished me for trying to escape. Whenever I was carried in from a failed attempt, he would wake me up and torture me until I fainted, always with some new implement so I wouldn't get used to it. He always awoken in me that same feeling of dread I most recently experienced with the battle with Noctores Gospel.

But now, he was a feeble man. Whatever vices he indulged him had taken from him his posture, his health, and his strength, judging by the way he feebly hobbled away from me. A useless action as all I had to do was shoot my second Longshock bullet near him, the wave of air knocking him on his back directly underneath the crucified IS a fair distance away from where he was.

"I killed you! How the hell did you survive that shot from a Mach 7 shield-piercer?" he demanded from his helpless position, his oppressive nature the only thing not taken from him.

"I was told not to die," I told him simply. Although the words sounded simple, the meaning behind them was profoundly complex.

"Then _I'll_ tell you to DIE! Noctores Gospel, Full AI, Eliminate all IS!" he called out. Buried deep in the sand, the black gorilla IS erupted from the sand, swinging an oversized fist into my waiting guard. Unfortunately, I couldn't use Aegis with my copy ability, so I did the next best thing. I used the momentum of the linear attack to redirect the new IS's velocity towards the imprisoned Schwarzer Regen. To help it along, I squeezed off two more Longshock bullets into its back, sending it spinning into the prototype. Small rocks loosed from the impact cascaded down onto X, causing him to sputter out the flecks of dirt. So I launched the two missiles left on my frame. The two missiles slammed into the Noctores Gospel, which detonated the Blue Tears hanging up Schwarzer Regen. A horrible explosion rocked the cliff, sending large chunks of rock hurtling down the cliffside.

I simply flew away, watching the carnage I wrought while the Blue Tears shoulder guard automatically was replaced by my shoulder guard. As long as I didn't re-summon it, I wouldn't take a hit to my shield energy.

Already battered by the fight before and my now conditioned reflex to direct attacks, the prototype Schwarzer Regen crumbled into tiny pieces of electronic debris, adding sparking pieces of junk to the explosion-caused avalanche.

Noctores Gospel, fell forward off the cliffside on all fours, landing straddled over X's body, where it withstood boulder after boulder that could've fallen onto its master. The avalanche finished with a massive clip of rock that landed point first into the chest of the robot serving as the pilot for this destructive IS. I followed up with a thruster-assisted heel, stomping the black helmet which served as the AI's head, shattering it into tiny splinters. The splinters flew everywhere, but most importantly into the skull of X.

To my surprise, he didn't scream out one bit. I confusedly examined him until I realized that he probably either died or was knocked unconscious and injured due to his proximity to the missile blast about 15 feet above him. I sighed, heavy with both relief and regret, when my sensors indicated he was still at least breathing, I turned his head, noticing he was bleeding from both ears, the ear drums probably ruptured from the concussive force of the blast. He'd probably be deaf unless he received treatment right away.

I could live with that.

"You know," I said to the unconscious man, not caring if he could hear me or not, "You have no idea how much I've wanted to do something like this to you. Every time you hurt me, you didn't make me fear you, you made me fear death. And instead of fearing you, I hated you so, so much. And this experience was very cathartic to me. But, you know, I'm just rambling now. But I just want you to know, that I'm like this because of you. I'm strong, I'm smart, and now I'm going to finally do something with it. Namely, get rid of you guys. And there's nothing you can do about it: you can't touch me, not while I have Deep Purple."

I felt a warm feeling from deep within my heart, the machine responding to my confidence in its power. With that happy feeling, I hummed a merry tune, flying the relatively intact Noctores Gospel and the unconscious and battered X across the field to R&D. I noticed the time has passed that I said I would visit the doctor, but I didn't care about that anymore. Instead, I messaged Orimura-sensei:

_I went fishing and caught a big one. I'll bring it over the the R&D room, so come on over with Dr. Nebata as soon as you can.

_Sever

* * *

><p>I flew the entire way to R&amp;D without seeing anyone somehow, probably due to everyone either eating lunch or practicing in the arena. Once I arrived there, I tied up X so he couldn't move and checked his ears. Apparently, they healed on the way over, but they didn't look too healthy. I hoped Dr. Nebata would be able to do something about them, but it might be prudent to call the infirmary doctor as well. However, I thought this probably best fit under the "classified" category, so I sat him up against a wall and then stood up the intact body of Noctores Gospel. This Noctores didn't have the big gun mounted on its back like the other Noctores did, but everything was exactly the same as the first: the gorilla-sized fists, the giant arm-cannons mounted on them, and the thin, spindly legs. Unfortunately for the Doctor, I crushed its head already so she couldn't get the AI program, but at least we had a fully functional Phantom Task IS to analyze.<p>

Everything set up, I laid down to rest my eyes and prepared to bathe in Orimura-sensei's expected praise.

THUD! Whud-whud-whud-whud-whud!

Orimura-sensei's punch sent my body flying a few feet through the air, then rolling even more on the ground.

"What the hell was that for?" I raged at Orimura-sensei, tears of anger streaming from my eyes. I picked up myself off the floor and walked to Orimura-sensei with heavy footsteps. I got right in her face and exclaimed, "Look what I accomplished with my IS! This man right here is X, the man from Phantom Task who kidnapped me and made me join him. I brought you a most-likely high-ranking member of a terrorist organization using the exact same IS as the one that attacked the arena during the Class Representative Cup and I did it all by myself!"

In response, she grabbed my neck with her hand, since my IS pilot suit didn't have a neckline high enough, and slapped me over and over until my face swelled with red.

"What-you-did-is-not-some-thing-to-be-proud-of!" Orimura-sensei punctuated each word with a slap.

She let me go and I slumped to my knees.

"First off, take a good look at that man, does he even look like he'd be able to give us any information regarding Phantom Task in the state he's in?"

As Dr. Nebata struggled with giving him whatever first-aid she knew, I examined the man in closer detail. This close, I was able to tell that his poor posture was due to an incredibly emaciated body, his skin hanging off his bones like wrinkled leather hanging to dry. His skin itself was pale underneath his clothes and coated with liver spots. The wounds on his head threatened to reopen at the slight movement, quivering with high pressure. His eyes were baggy, his breathing shallow. This man, who should've been in his 40's or so, now looked like he was in his 70's and ready to push up daisies, even without my help.

"Also, why didn't you ask for any help? This isn't a game where you get to play the invincible hero and save the world, this is real life! This is why we have a school and classes instead of private lessons and the like, so that you learn to work together! Did you even think for a minute that this might just be a set-up or something to lure you out?

"In any case, this wasn't even a permitted mission or some kind of self-defense. This was full-on violence! Even if you didn't attack him directly, you not only caused him harm by not considering the effects your attacks would have on an unshielded man, but you showed blatant disregard for the extents of his injuries!"

"Wait, how was I supposed to take care of something like this? He had multiple lacerations and ruptured eardrums," I argued, trying to defend my actions.

"That's just it! You knew what this man had, but you didn't even do the bare minimum to help. Did you even think to use your AR to research how to take care of him? Because if you did, you would have known to call for help rather than bring him back here. Hell, you're lucky he's even alive! And don't get me started on the ears, there's so much you should've done that it'd be a miracle he'd be able to hear even if we can stop the infection he probably has!"

Orimura-sensei wasn't even winded by her rant, while all I could do was rub my neck and cheeks and stare at the floor.

"I'm not going to say good job, but I also don't plan to let an opportunity like this slip through my hands. We'll do what we can to get as much information as possible from this person, but know that I don't expect much. If he is the same man who kidnapped you, then that means he's also been in Phantom Task for at least 12 years, going by your story. In that time, not only has he seen what happens to traitors, but he probably done what happened to traitors himself.

"Now, head over to the doctor and get checked out like you said you would. After that, you're quarantined to your room until nightfall. After dinner, send me a message and come to R&D with a full report on today's actions."

"Fine," I muttered.

She fixed me with a deadly stare and ordered, "Your answer should be 'yes' when addressing a teacher, you idiot."

"Yes, sensei," I responded, selling her an exaggerated call to attention and equally exaggerated salute.

I stiffly about face and marched out of the R&D room as mechanically as I could, only to turn around and lean against the door. Although I acted tough and sarcastic while leaving, inside I felt like dying. I heard Orimura inside say to Dr. Nebata, "First Laura and now Sever. Both of them are actually pretty similar, all the way to their battle lust. What can I do to teach them that?" I'm pretty sure Dr. Nebata replied to that, but it was muffled through the door.

_Battle lust? _Is that what it was? Am I really as psychotic as that German chick? My IS seemed to echo my sentiments, feeling cold to the touch. I walked outside the facility, almost forgetting to grab Orimura's clothes from the thick foliage. When I got to the dormitories, I tossed the bundle of clothes into my hamper before heading to the infirmary at the top.

* * *

><p>I met Nefer at the elevator. Seeing me in my IS pilot suit and walking to the elevator with such a sad look on my face, she gave me a tight embrace and escorted me all the way to the infirmary. While there, she wouldn't let go of me, instead shifting around to different positions as the doctor checked my legs for signs of recovery.<p>

Straight off, he chastised me for using my legs so hard before he ok'd it, but luckily there wasn't any further damage to them. He guessed in a week or so I'd be abel to use my legs fully without any weakness.

Nefer celebrated with a "That's great, Ate!" and gave me a tighter embrace. I think I smiled at that. I decided that even if I had to pretend to act, I would be just like the Sever she got to know over these 5 years or so. Then we left the infirmary. Or at least we tried to.

As soon as we got to the elevator, a stampede of girls emerged from the hallway, almost running us down if we didn't step aside quick enough. Curious, I followed the gaggle of girls while Nefer attempted to pull me back towards the elevators, saying "Come on, this probably isn't that important."

"I disagree," I objected, "Not too many people come to the infirmary, much less a stampede of women. Something's up."

I wormed my way out of her grip and peeked into the room the girls invaded. Over their heads, I noticed a panicked Orimura stutter "Wh-what is it?"

I also heard Dunois ask a more direct, "What's wrong, everyone?"

All together, the girl's thrust out some form at the two boys.

"'In the upcoming Intra-Class Tournament, to stage more realistic mock battles, you are required to participate in pairs,'" Orimura quoted off the closest form in range. "Those who do not choose their own pairs will be assigned a partner through a lottery.'"

After Orimura read aloud the form, the girls started clamoring for the two to pick them as his partner. The room was filled with hopeful appeals to desperate pleas, each outburst hinting at their respective owner's combat potential.

Finally, Orimura closed the issue by declaring his intent to partner with Dunois. Immediately, the girls gave up but seemed oddly satisfied by the outcome, muttering things to each other like "I guess that's better than another girl" and "A team of boys looks good, too".

I smacked my head as silently as possible, thinking to myself I_s this really the people I'm supposed to learn to work with, Sensei? Can you really blame me for wanting to work on my own when I have these kinds of people to rely on?_

I turned to Nefer and quietly asked her, "Did you know about this?"

She took my arm and started walking towards the elevator. "Yeah, she announced this to our combined practical in the afternoon. She also said that except during class, we weren't allowed to have battles. I think it had to do with the injuries the new girl inflicted on Ms. Alcott and Rin."

"Laura Bodewig?"

"Yes, that girl. She apparently attempted to use an attack that would kill the AD and severely injure those two girls."

"Not surprised," I muttered quietly to myself.

"What was that?" Nefer asked, hearing enough to be suspicious.

"Not surprised," I clarified. "Remember, this is the girl who slapped Orimura as soon as she met him."

"I didn't hear about that," Nefer admitted. "But how does a slap in the face turn into a desire to severely injure?"

"Um, err, yea, right," I lamely hesitated. I stuck out my tongue and mimed a blow to my head like Dr. Nebata did so long ago. "I guess they don't."

"Ha ha ha," she laughed. "You know, it doesn't look at all cute when you do it. You're more of the cool beauty type, like Sakaki from Azumanga Daioh."

"I'm surprised, I didn't think you watched old anime like that. Figured that if you were into anime, it would be the My Little Pony reboot or something with a hot guy in it."

"I just happened to find one of your old DVDs lying around and decided to watch it. Before I knew it, I marathoned the entire thing and went to sleep at 4 or so."

"So that's what happened that one day. You know, I had a really hard time keeping you awake during lessons."

"I remember, which reminds me. What did you make me that day, the thing that woke me up right away?"

"Hmm, some kind of tea I think, something with a lot of energy in it. I'll look it up sometime and tell you."

Sometime in our conversation, we had boarded an elevator and made our way to in front of our dorm room.

"Nefer, I'm going to work on homework since I got to meet with Sensei later tonight. How about you?"

"I wanted to go to cooking club, but with practice banned I think the regulars will be coming back. I don't know..."

"You know, you're going to have to eventually choose a partner. Why not one of the cooking club members?"

"Wait, we're not going to partner up, Ate?"

"I thought the terms of our bet was that you beat me, right? You can't exactly beat me if we're on the same team," I pointed out.

"Boo," she complained.

"Also, don't forget that the winner gets to go out with Orimura!" I teased her, opening the door and dodging her retaliatory slap with an unnecessary combat roll. She slammed the door on me, probably to find herself a powerful ally. I changed into more comfortable clothes and started on my report, using it to reflect on my actions.

* * *

><p>After finishing my report, a knock sounded from my door.<p>

"Food service," a familiar voice called out.

I opened the door and greeted the person there, "How's it going, Orimura?"

"Chifuyu-nee asked me to bring this to you when I got dinner. Said something about you not being able to leave the room, so I brought you some dinner. Hope you like tonkatsu."

"Well, I'll find out soon. Wanna come in and hang a bit? I've got cookies." I offered, pulling out my drawer of snacks.

"Well, sure. Can't say no to sugar, you know."

I handed him a package of Oreo's and we sat in silence, eating our respective foods. The tonkatsu turned out to be a fried pork cutlet topped with some kind of sauce, served on a bed of pickled veggies and rice. He also had the forethought to bring a steaming teapot of green tea, which I poured for myself. Orimura also held out a spare cup left on the tray, but I shook my head and reached into the minifridge I smuggled under my bed. His eyes went wide as I pulled out a bottle of whole milk. He gratefully accepted the treasure, both of us silently agreeing nothing went better with cookies then milk. As for me, I thoroughly enjoyed the meal, deciding to figure out what was in the sauce via experimentation sometime. I refused to cheat for this.

I noticed Orimura looking at my outfit, probably never seeing clothes like this before. As it was a warm night, I had on a white sleeveless shirt, blue track pants and a new pair of black jika-tabi to replace my old ones. I had wrapped my chest with cloth tape, as I have never enjoyed wearing bras due to my lack of endowment. The only time I wore one is when I had pads in them, and then only when I had clothes large enough to completely hide them in like my uniform. I also had on my fingerless gloves, Orimura-sensei never had taken them away from me.

"So why can't you leave the room?" Orimura asked after polishing off his desert, avoiding the subject of his gaze.

"I pissed off your sister in a big way," I said offhandedly, pretending not to notice his gaze.

Orimura moved to look me in the eyes and gravely state, "If you did piss her off badly enough to get grounded, don't do it again for your own safety. If she did get mad at you, it's because you did something dangerous without thinking it through." Then he poured himself a cup of tea and started calmly drinking it.

"You're really close to your sister, huh?" I observed, emptying the pot and giving half to Orimura.

"And you're really close to your roommate," he retorted. "Are you two cousins or something?"

"Half-sisters," I corrected. "We were united when our parents died and since then I've been taking care of her."

"That's great," Orimura praised me. "I'm in a similar situation, and Chifuyu-nee ended up taking care of me."

"So we actually have more in common than our heights, huh?"

"Looks that way."

"Well, it's been a long time coming, but I really should apologize for tricking you that first day of school. Nefer was kinda scared of you, so I got rid of you. Please forgive me," I said earnestly.

"It's fine," the easy-going guy replied. "Especially now that I know why. You're a great sister."

"Thanks, man. Well, I gotta go see your sister now and pay the piper. When we get a chance, we should talk again. You seem like a chill kinda guy I can relax around."

"Likewise. You know Seberu-san, you can call me Ichika if you like, that's what my friends call me."

"Ha ha, thanks I'll try. But don't get insulted if I call you by your family name, I'm really used to referring to you by it."

"You've been talking that much about me?" he asked.

"Yea, you have no idea how popular you are around the girls, Ichika," sounding out the more personal name. "The pain of being one of the only men in a girl's school, huh?"

I playfully elbowed him, evoking a return jostle and the words "You have no idea."

He got up off my bed and shook my hand. "Well, I'm going to go do homework now," he excused himself. "See you in the tournament."

"Definitely. Until our next meeting." He left with a wave and then entered his own dorm next door.

I added the conversation I had with Orimura, no Ichika, into my story report, since Sensei asked me to write a "full" one. Then, I put on a jacket (just in case) and messaged Sensei to let her know I was going to the R&D room.

* * *

><p>I met her there and handed her a printed copy of the last two chapters of my report to Orimura-sensei.<p>

After that, I bowed deeply to 90 degrees with the ground in the Japanese custom of apologizing.

"Sensei," I started, "while writing this report, I had the chance to reflect on what you told me in the R&D today. And I think you were probably right. I didn't know what could've happened to me, nor did I properly take care of X. I let my anger and blood lust control me to the point where it took a life-or-death moment to remind me what kind of person I wanted to be, only to disregard when faced with my former tormentor. I learned my lesson, and I look forward to learning even more from you."

"Fine," Orimura-sensei said, "apology accepted. Now, go to sleep, we've got teamwork practicals all day tomorrow and you've got to choose your partner for the Tournament in a couple of weeks. Dismissed!"


	8. Chapter 8 My Dialogue Sucks

Ch. 8 – Sometimes I Feel Like George Lucas: My Dialogue Sucks

Author's note: Blah, I knew this would happen when I lost my character sheet. When I got my reviews for chapter 2 and such, I made a sheet so I could work on not making Sever so Sue-ish. Then I lost it. Blagh. Alright, I really want to finish it now, rather than fix the Sue-ity, so I will, then go back and take care of it.

I finally got to the second part of the story I really wanted to write: the big 2v2 tournament! Whoo! I love writing fights. Even ones that happened in the anime, I felt like a sports commentator.

It is really horrible, but for some reason I feel like I can't write a conversation. It's why I try to avoid things like that, but unfortunately for me the story calls for it. I'll try to get better, so stay tuned for hopefully more interesting things to follow in the last 5 chapters.

Also, there's a section here that's basically lifted from the anime, so feel free to skip it or speed read it. I hope I did it justice, but if you want to skip it, I've underlined the entire part. When I finish, I'll do the same to the other chapters.

One more thing, anyone having trouble with uploading documents?

* * *

><p>Chapter Start<p>

* * *

><p>I was working on the rest of my homework, late in the middle of the night when Orimura-sensei messaged me. She told me that she contacted Bodewig and told her explicitly that I was no longer a member of Phantom Task. At least I didn't have to worry about being attacked by her anymore.<p>

I finished my homework just in time to have a midnight snack, so I indulged in cookies and warm milk. Or at least I wanted to, but I didn't have a microwave or anything. So I stole away to the kitchen to make use of its facilities.

_Ok, I really need to learn to control myself, _I thought to myself, taking a look at the spread before me. At first, all I wanted to do was warm up some milk to go with my cookies, but then I thought that brownies sounded better. While baking the brownies, I got hungry so I made an omelette. After taking a bite of the omelette, I thought it was a bit too plain, so I fried some bacon to go with it. The brownies finished by this time, but when I realized that fried foods didn't go well with chocolate, I started making a fruit smoothie to serve as a palate cleanser. Then I realized I didn't have any filler, so I made a salad. Then I changed my mind and boiled some rice, then fried half of it to use up the grease left by the bacon. I added chopped vegetables and shrimp to it, which gave me a craving for sushi. I cut a whole bunch of fish for nigiri, but I realized that the left over rice wasn't suitable for sushi, so I made a whole new batch. Then I searched for wasabi and ginger, but I couldn't find any wasabi! What kind of Japanese kitchen runs out of that?

Thankfully, this lull in creation finally snapped me out of my cooking trance. I guess going weeks without doing it was sort of like withdrawal. I wonder if anyone's ever got addicted to the action of cooking, rather than the reward of it?

But thoughts like that wouldn't help me finish this food. I imagined Nefer echoing what I told her long ago, "The Gods will smite you for wasting food". Back then, she would listen to everything I said and would even force down pickled veggies or fish or anything that was good for her but she didn't like. I'm sure she would have a good time teasing me for being a hypocrite if I didn't find a way to finish all this stuff off.

"God dammit, how the hell am I supposed to finish all this myself?" I grumbled to myself, breaking off a piece of omelette and mixing it with pieces from the crispy bacon. I slowly ate the the meal piece by piece, quietly praying that I would be able to not only stomach all of this but that I would be able to work this off later. The pastries would be fine for a couple of days, but the sushi, salad, and omelette would definitely spoil if I didn't eat it now. Why didn't this school have a fridge for putting prepared food? Why didn't it have plastic wrap or tupperware for me to store it in?

Why did I restock my personal fridge to capacity? And where's my warm milk?

Wait, I had the glass right in front of me. I didn't drink it yet, but I had it out so I could. I looked around, and next to the pastries I saw a familiar pale girl's silver hair shivering minutely as she comically shoveled fresh brownies into her mouth, only resting to chug a bit of milk.

"You've got a bit of a sweet tooth, don't you Bodewig-san?"

The girl in question flinched, calmly put down the fraction of brownie left in her hand, and drank the rest of her milk in a slow, steady gulp. She then took a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped her mouth before finally turning around to face me.

With the slightest tinge of a blush, the German girl stood at attention silently. It seemed like she wanted to say something, but couldn't quite get the words out. So I started things off: "Were they any good?"

"Heavenly," she confessed, smashing her hands into her cheeks to try to squeeze out every little piece of brownie in her cheeks. "The chocolate blends perfectly with the milk, it's soft and warm and fluffy, but the sides are really crunchy! How'd you do it?"

"Lots and lots of experimentation," I admitted. "It took a while to find the right combination of heat and mixture to get the consistency just right. Someone long ago told me that cooking and baking are two different beasts. When you cook, each part of the meal is a separate attack focused on a specific taste. As you eat the meal, the flavors combine together within the mouth to create harmony of taste. This is the secret to a fulfilling meal, even if there really isn't a lot of food. When you bake, especially with pastries, you add touch to taste to create something amazing. Whether it's the airiness of sponge cake or a crispy gingerbread cookie, you match the taste of the pastry with a certain texture and feeling to create emotion rather than fulfillment. Looks like I succeeded, huh?"

"And then some," she agreed, sneaking more brownies into her mouth before she realized she ran out of milk. She struggled with the chocolate overload, barely swallowing it down before panting heavily. I quickly poured her a glass of milk, even the cold stuff would still go good with it. She finally washed the taste of chocolate from her mouth and sat at the table, her breathing stabilized but still deep.

"Too much chocolate?" I teased.

"No such thing for a girl," she replied. "I just need a break from it for a bit."

"Well then, if you're still hungry I've got some other goodies to try," I suggested, spreading my arms out to indicate the ludicrous amount of food.

She stared hungrily at the smorgasbord of food. "How do I know you didn't tamper with it?" she cautiously investigated the food.

"You dive headfirst into the fresh brownies without blinking an eye, yet you suspect the food set out, each one obviously having a piece cut out for tasting?" I deadpanned, folding my arms in front of me.

"Well, that's..." she trailed off, looking surprisingly shy and awkward for the first time I've seen her. Granted, I've only gotten a good look at her in battle mode, but it was still not a face I expected seeing from a definitely violent little girl.

"Look," I broke the silence with a transition, "it would honestly be a shame if all this food went to waste. I can't freeze it because it would lose its flavor and I can't refrigerate it because I can't find the damned plastic wrap to seal it. I can't even find tupperware, it's that bad. So, will you please help me finish all this?" I begged her with my hands clasped and my head bowed, although I really should have been kneeling to get the full effect.

She opened her mouth to answer, but instead her stomach answered for her. I was taken aback at that, the girl had finished a quarter of the brownies by herself and her stomach still rumbled?

"Guess that's a yes?" I observed, fetching a pair of chopsticks from a drawer.

She didn't reply, sitting at the table and accepting the chopsticks gracefully while almost succeeding at hiding a blush. I expected that she would eat daintily, like a princess at a tea party or something. Instead she shoveled large portions of food, chewing fast and furiously but still with the sense to keep her mouth closed while doing it. I should have expected it after seeing the brownies. Within seconds, she finished the omelette before I snapped out of shock and started on the fried rice with shrimp. In response, she grabbed the salad and crumbled the remaining bacon over it, then finished the entire thing before stealing the last quarter of fried rice and shrimp from me. Then, we were left with just the sushi. I got some eel nigiri into my belly before I gave up, my stomach too stuffed to compete anymore. Bodewig, on the other hand, kept going strong even with out ginger or wasabi.

Never liking silence too much, I attempted to fill the void with conversation. Since I didn't want her to choke, I limited my questions to simple yes/no ones.

"Are you enjoying it?" Yes, a curt nod.

"You need wasabi?" Yes, another curt nod.

"We're out." Disappointed look, then back to eating.

"Do you cook?" No, a single shake of the head.

"Do you bake?" No, pissed off face.

"Fine, fine, but last one," I gave up, but there was a question I had to ask.

"Do you believe me now? About Phantom Task?"

When I asked that question, Bodewig swallowed what was in her mouth, and answered without hesitating "If the instructor said so, it must be true…"

_But she still had her doubts_, I finished her sentence she did not want to admit to. The last piece of sushi sat between us, neither of us hungry, albeit for different reasons. Then the girl's eyes hardened, the girly food-craver with a sweet tooth instantly became a cold but proud warrior; one's whose pride had been tarnished with a sad defeat.

"Tell me, if you're not a special agent from Phantom Task, then who exactly are you? How did you become so strong at fighting?" she spat out bitterly, as if I insulted her with my unusual competence yesterday.

"Well, I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you," I joked. In hindsight, that was probably not the best thing to do, especially sine I noticed that her mood had changed after that question.

"IS THAT A THREAT?" she yelled, knocking her chair to the ground, back stepping and placing a hand on the device on her thigh, most likely the standby form of her IS.

_Okay, wrong person to make death jokes about, especially lame ones like that,_ I admonished myself. I attempted to placate the on-edge warrior by spreading my hand wide, giving her an open shot at my heart. "No, no, no, no, no," I pleadingly denied, "it was just a bad joke. In incredibly poor taste," self-depreciating myself even more.

From my experiences with an angry Nefer, I learned putting yourself down was the best course of action when teasing someone took a wrong turn. The only problem with this scenario is that Bodewig had the ability to kill me for it. I had doubts that she would, due to us being in the school surrounded by civilians, but I had no idea of what she was thinking of. But when I saw a certain prop next to her current location, I thought, "Maybe I can get her to think of something else."

"Look, if you come back and talk this out with me, I'll make brownies for you whenever you want," I pleaded, hoping this would tempt her into standing down. She mulled it over in her head, having visible difficulty in choosing between her anger and her desire. Apparently desire won, for she carried the brownies from the table next to her and brought them to the table I sat at. She picked up the glass left at the table and slammed it down, a silent demand for more milk. I sighed with relief as I got up to appease the easily enraged German. No way I would be able to fight with such a full stomach.

"Alright, more seriously now, how much did Orimura-sensei tell you about me?" I asked, probing for a good place to start my reply to her question.

"All she told me was that you're not part of Phantom Task anymore and that you're assisting the Academy with classified research. She said if I wanted to know more, I'd have to ask you. That's why I'm here chatting with you, rather than killing you in your sleep," she answered, purposefully emphasizing her willingness to end me. She did all this without a trace of the childlike personality she showed me before, despite the fact she was munching on the trigger of her personality shift: the brownies. Just then, I realized that I sacrificed a nice, safe atmosphere for the sake of a poor joke directed at an even worse target. I lowered my head and started rubbing my temples, both to wipe away the memory of this lapse in judgment and to think of what I could and couldn't say about my "strength".

"First off, I can't describe any particulars, but I can tell you that I'm helping with IS research. The purple IS I used against you was equipped with a weapon from that research," I told her, definitely the truth, but not an entire truth since it was technically a one-off rather than just equipment.

"The one that halted momentum or the one that shot compressed air?" she pressed, digging for as much information as she could.

"Technically both, since the gun uses the tech from the momentum-halting one to shoot out that air," I corrected, still stating the truth but using her terms to obscure what actually happened. I felt that a combination of careful listening mixed with incomplete truths would help me avoid giving her any tells. It wasn't just because of the classified nature of the research, but more that if she did ignore Orimura-sensei's orders and come after me again she wouldn't know the full extent of my capabilities.

"But basically, ever since I received my IS a month or so ago, I've been involved with training every single day. It was either practical training to learn the IS or combat training to use the IS. I barely got anytime to myself, this is actually the first time in a while I was able to cook, you know? And even then, the only things I've been actually practicing were combat maneuvers like that counter I used on you the first fight. Everything else was spur of the moment decisions inspired by old superhero shows."

"Then, what was with the rail gun thing?" the girl asked, probably the real reason why she still suspected me of evil, or at least being a terrorist.

"That's...hard to explain..." I trailed off. It was easy to explain it to Orimura-sensei and Dr. Nebata, but for the life of me I couldn't look this girl in the eyes and tell her I murdered someone. Some fear deep in the back of my head warned me if she heard that she would run me through then and there, just looking for an excuse to gut me.

"But it's also not something I'm proud of. Having power just kind of awoken some primal instinct to destroy threats to my life, you know?" I tried to appeal to the base warrior nature she embodied: Kill or be killed. I hoped that something clicked within her, but just in case, I protectively moved my arms to my stomach, just barely obscured by the table to Bodewig's field of vision.

"No, it's something you should be proud of," she objected. "That's your strength in its purest form. It's an overwhelming power that tramples over all. That rage just needs a commander to direct it towards the enemy."

It sounded like something she was taught, but I couldn't imagine Orimura-sensei telling anyone that. In fact, she told me off for doing that exact thing yesterday. Therefore...

"The voice from the IS that rescued you that night, did he teach you that?" I inferred from my opinions.

"The Commander? Yes. After the Instructor left, I was the strongest IS soldier in Germany," the German proudly declared. "Even before we assisted her in finding her brother, I was already awed by her performance in the first Mondo Grosso. When she agreed, to be ours for a year, I trained on my own as hard as I could just to be able to work with her. And after she finished with me, I was the best hand-to-hand fighter, the best aim with fireworks, and the best pilot without equal. In my mind, I felt as if I were a younger version of the Instructor. But the one thing I couldn't emulate was her inner strength, 'Ki' or something like that in Japanese."

"'Ki'?" I asked, knowing the meaning myself, but also knowing that most people confused it for a great deal many other things.

"Inner strength," she clarified, "or at the very least what drives her will to be so strong. She told me she's strong because she had a little brother, the same one we found for her, beaten and tied to a pole. But the thing that I don't understand is that look she had on her face. In the first Mondo Grosso and all throughout my training she always had a strong face, a dignified face, a distinguished face...I can't describe the look she had with plain words, but the face I saw when describing her brother was not the Instructor who taught me how to fight.

"That's why I can't forgive the man who changed her like that, the one who for the first time in my life made me second-guess the Instructor. I will understand her strength, even if I have to force her to find a new strength."

Now that was creepy. I felt like she was on the verge of rampaging throughout the dorms to find him right at that moment. I needed to do something quick, not for just Orimura's sake, but because I was directly between her and his room, and she had just materialized a rail gun that could shoot explosive projectiles at Mach 7.

"So what about the Commander?" I prompted, handing her a plate of brownies, now appealing to her sweet tooth. Luckily, she calmed down back to her militaristic persona, though I was kinda hoping for the "cute sweets-loving-girl" regression. Oh well, as long as she puts away that rail gun I'll take what I can get.

With the episode over, the rail gun dematerialized without a vocal or visual command from Bodewig. She didn't even seem to notice that it was out in the first place. I wondered whether her IS was tied into her state of mind.

"The Commander was the leader of the squad I transferred into, Schwarze Hase," she continued. I suppressed a giggle as the translator returned the name "Black Rabbit". This girl was definitely not a docile black bunny. "He was the one who told me to search for a different strength than the Instructor's. He told me just what I told you: 'That rage and anger is the purest form of strength.'

"And so I let him control my strength. When he pointed at a target, I destroyed it. So when he pointed at you, I tried to destroy you," she candidly admitted, not surprising me in the least with her directness. Rather, I connected the dots in my head.

She just admitted that her Commander was the owner of the voice that came from the true Schwarzer Regen that rescued her from my bloodlust. That same voice owner turned out to be X, whom I captured and brought into the Academy somehow without being seen. X really is a member of Phantom Task, and probably has had experience with disposing of traitors. Since he ordered Bodewig to kill me on suspicion of being a terrorist, maybe even justifying the order by saying I was powerful or something like that. At the very least, it meant that he had a reasonable excuse to conspicuously hunt down Black Phantom traitors with deadly force. He was probably in the perfect position as far as Phantom Task was concerned to hunt down defectors. Defectors like me. Which meant they had a way to know I was responsible for the black IS's destruction!

Wait, wait, I can't go full-tilt into panic right now. Right now, there's a militaristic girl who can fall into psychotic rage in the space of a few sentences, is suspicious of my true nature and affiliations, and has already proven the ability to summon devastatingly potent weapons in the breath of a second. Something I haven't even tried to do myself due to the fact equipping my Deep Purple hurts like hell.

I need more info. More importantly, she's starting to look worried again. Another topic? Right, I can ask that!

"Why were you using a prototype IS to fight me, anyways?" Grasping at straws to distract the girl.

"I've been watching you for a while, even before I was formally introduced to you in class. Since the Commander saw fit to bring two AIs with him on the mission he attended personally, I figured either you were a high priority target or immensely powerful," she answered offhandedly, luckily still distracted by the brownies. "Unfortunately, my personal IS had a slight malfunction, so I outfitted myself with the prototype the Commander brought along while he attempted repairs.

"AIs? Malfunction?"

"One of my weapons wasn't working at full reliability," she answered evasively. I guess the only information she was willing to give was ones that were unrelated to her combat potential and info made invalid with Orimura-sensei's testimony. Her own incomplete answer reminded me of what Orimura-sensei said about us behind closed doors: That we had a lot in common."The prototype had a stable version, but it couldn't be used often. As far as the AIs go, you should ask someone else about them. All I know is that we use them in exceptionally dangerous missions."

Oh crap, she finished off the brownies. With nothing to distract her further, she got up and left for the dorms. Luckily by this time, I had digested enough to get up without discomfort. I caught up with her to try to continue the conversation, but as soon as I did so, she entered the room closest to the cafeteria. That's probably how she heard me in the kitchen, fumbling around the kitchen cooking like crazy.

But she did turn around, probably aiming for this exact moment when I couldn't talk but she could.

"I want you to know I acknowledge your strength."

What?

"Even if I was in a prototype IS, you did defeat me in a one-on-one fight. You had the same pure strength or rage that I did, but you handily defeated me with that strength."

But I didn't want to win that way. I just wanted you to back off right?

"I'll have my revenge in the Inter-class Tournament coming up. Don't worry, I would never let something as trivial as a partner slow me down in a fight. I'll defeat you with all my power, stopping just shy of killing you. But, if you defeat Orimura before I do, I won't stop at nothing."

Stop smiling that evil smile, I don't want to fight like that. We're here to learn, not to kill each other right? Hell, why do you want to fight so much? I thought you knew what strength was now?

"But before I do, I told you what I think strength is, where it comes from. How about you, a warrior with that same rage?"

I don't know, that's not me. I don't want it to be me. It can't be me. I'm not a killer like that, I don't want to be like that!

"Hmm, you seem confused. Don't worry," Bodewig smiled that psychotic smile of hers, the one she used before blasting me with the rail gun the first time we met, the one more fit for demons, "I'll 'tease' the answer out of you in a week."

Then she closed the door, leaving me with an incredible chill running down my back.

* * *

><p>"Geez, you look horrible," Honne told me, now the day of the tournament.<p>

"I've been having crazy nightmares all week long, and they all involve that crazy German girl. I mean, is it just me or do all the people she partners up with end up flying away in fear?" I responded, remembering what happened every single time Orimura-sensei had us practice teamwork in class.

In the week before the tournament, just like Sensei said, we had supervised teamwork training. This consisted mostly of us doing our own research in class in the morning to create viable strategies to use in the tournament. Well, at least those of us who registered teammates and qualified for a slot in the tournament. Due to the amount of VIPs coming to scout, rather than just limiting the entrants by qualification exams, but they also specified a number of seeds for each class, making sure that the entire day was filled with entertainment from each class. Those who qualified but didn't get a seed would be called up in order of ranking depending on how much time their year had left in their allotted slots after the tournament proper. In order to take advantage of this, I partnered with Honne, probably the only person I could partner up with and stand a chance. Gifted with great reflexes and an incredible battle instinct I experienced first hand in our sparring, I figured she'd be the best person to partner up with, even over the personal IS owners.

But the others weren't looking too shabby as well, Orimura and Dunois especially. It was disappointing that both Cecilia and Rin were injured and their IS badly damaged, but at least it was a pair of Personal IS out of the running. But I had a feeling that the boys' fight would be the best one to watch and the favorites of this tournament.

"OOH, LOOK!" Honne shrieked, grabbing everyone's attention instantly. "THEY POSTED THE BRACKET!"

The girls crowded around the two of us in the girl's changing area, the two boys shooed out already.

The first seed caught me by surprise but relieved me at the same time: Laura Bodewig and Shinonono Houki vs. Charles Dunois and Orimura Ichika.

"Well, at least she won't kill me," I grimly muttered under my breath.

"Say what?" Honne asked, overhearing me with her above-average hearing. Why does everyone always hear my asides?

"Never mind," I brushed aside the question.

"You know, if you keep pushing people away you'll never get a boyfriend," she chastised me.

"Assuming we survive after our match," I objected, pointing out the next matchup.

"Sever Panganiban and Nohotoke Honne vs. Cecilia Alcott and Huang Ling Yin?" Honne blurted out.

"That's right!" Rin chirped up from behind us. "I hope you'll give us a good match!"

"Oh, they will, Rin," Cecilia assured her in that proud voice I distinctly remember from when I first heard of the girl. "Even though these two use Uchigane, both are very good at using them, and these two are considered the top fighters when you exclude Ichika, Dunois-kun, Bodewig-san, and Shinonono-san. Even their combinations are to be feared. I wish you could have seen them, but you never had practicals with us this week"

It felt good to be recognized for my abilities, but it was also disturbing to know that my opponent had watched me so much to be able to praise me so earnestly.

"...I appreciate the praise," I started out hesitantly, "but weren't you two injured at the thing with Bodewig?"

"And weren't both of your IS damaged to the point of not being usable?" Honne spoke up.

"Did you two forget?" Cecilia asked us, incredulous at our apparent ignorance. "Rin and I are the representatives of China and England using the very best in IS technology. With such an important event so prestigious that it even attracts leaders of countries to watch, it's a perfect opportunity for our countries to show their IS's might! Our countries repaired our IS in the nick of time for Yamada-sensei to allow our participation in the tournament.

"Yeah," Rin continued. "As for us, the injuries were only sprains and they were gone in a week. Also, while we were recovering, we came up with a whole bunch of team-up strategies. So don't go easy on us!" She pointed a gun at the two of us and fired. I smoothly stepped aside while Honne took it in the heart, dropped like a rock, grabbed her shoulder, and writhed on the floor in "pain".

That drew a whole lot of laughs from the room, and I helped Honne to her feet, even going into my bag to grab some tape to wrap around her shoulder. Honne then proceeded to resist my "first-aid", but ultimately was overwhelmed by the combined force of chattering girls. In the end, she came out with bandages on her left shoulder, around her forehead, and on right thigh.

"You know, I hope no one gets the wrong idea about this," I worried, looking Honne over.

"No worries," the carefree girl replied, "I'll remove them before the match."

"Well then, let's get ready for the show," Rin chirped, dragging both me and Honne to the stands after we put on our uniforms. Cecilia dutifully followed with as regal an air she could put on.

Our small group grew and grew as girls from entered the arena from all entrances, although it was obvious by the color of their blazer ties that the years had segregated themselves into blue, yellow, and red. We sat as close as the crowd allowed us to and waited for the fighters to enter the arena.

* * *

><p><span>The timer counted down an intensely long five seconds to the start of the match. All eyes were on the two teams in front of us, all four crouched and ready to dash at each other. Then at 0, Orimura and Bodewig charged, screaming battle cries at each other while Houki and Dunois took up a rear support position. Orimura thrust his energy blade at Bodewig, only to be stopped by that same strange ability Laura used on me back in our fight. I checked Bodewig's info on my AR again, but the information hadn't changed from that time.<span>

"I knew that'd happen," Rin complained in the seat in front of Honne.

"AIC," Cecilia joined in, clapping a hand to her forehead in exasperation. "He knew about it, too."

I nudged the seemingly-knowing girl in front of me and asked her, "What exactly is that weapon Bodewig's using? AIC, I think you called it?"

"It's something called Active Inertial Canceler. Apparently it changes mental energy into a field that stops anything within it," she replied off-handily, never taking her eyes off the battle. Hmm, so that's how she stopped her momentum when I Aegis punched her before, and how she trapped me while charging her rail gun.

As soon as I thought that, Bodewig repeated her favorite tactic, holding her opponent in place while charging her rail gun. However, Dunois was having none of that, popping up from behind Orimura and sending a high powered bullet into the side of the rail gun. Panicked, Bodewig fired the rail gun nowhere near full power, sending the shell flying past Orimura's head and harmlessly on the ground where it didn't detonate.

Dunois continued his assault by quickly dismissing his rifle and summoning a submachine gun, a maneuver Rin (and probably only Rin) termed the Rapid Switch (in English, no less). I found myself sincerely hoping that a bunch of her teamwork maneuvers were similarly named, and began coming up with my own for our match.

He battered Bodewig with small arms fire when Houki charged at an oblique, absorbing fire meant for Bodewig and getting close to smack Dunois a good one, sending him spinning through the air. Using the ground for support, he recovered from the free spin while Orimura moved behind him, ready to catch him if he needed it.

Houki took a battle stance and charged at the two. Without a signal between the two, Dunois leapt into the air and Orimura met Houki blade to blade. He forced a lock while behind him, Dunois had "Rapid Switched" back to his assault rifle, bringing with it a dual wielded twin.

He was about to deliver a heavy blow to Houki's Uchigane when all of a sudden Houki went flying into the air.

"You know Honne," I remarked in a voice louder than it really had to be, "for some odd reason that looked really familiar to me." She and some other girls within earshot giggled, Cecilia included. Bodewig had pulled that same exact move where she grabs her partner's legs and carelessly flings them over her head in order to charge at the opponent herself. Against Uchigane, the tactic was fine as her IS had more weaponry than any other one on campus, at least that I knew of.

That same tactic was easily repelled by a waiting Orimura, who had watched the practicals so much he expected it. In fact, the only one in our class who didn't expect it was Houki, although I admit, she was a bit distracted at the time. He stalled the dual beam sword wielding German with well placed positioning of his own blade. While fighting Orimura, Bodewig also sent her wire daggers in Dunois' general direction, which he effortlessly dodged., even blocking an errant one with an arm guard.

Finally recovered from Bodewig's throw, Houki attempted to rejoin Orimura's battle, only to be intercepted by a shower of bullets from Dunois' dual shotguns. I reconsidered my earlier thought about Bodewig's IS, Dunois Raphael Revive II Custom had shown more weapons then Bodewig ever showed me. I had a feeling that in terms of raw power, Bodewig could easily decimate the whole Academy herself, but when decimation isn't the mission, Dunois would be perfect for the job.

The power and spread of Dunois' shotguns were more than enough to force Houki to abandon guarding herself and going for a fatal blow, hoping to end Dunois before he ended her. However, even that was part of Dunois plan as he dismissed a shotgun, pulled out an honest-to-God knife and parried her blow. He then returned it with interest, shoving his remaining shotgun into Houki's chest and hitting her with every part of shot loaded within. He switched to slugs and continued his heavy assault, finally ending Houki's tournament debut by draining her shield energy. Normally, the IS would disappear at this point, but in order to mimic real world conditions, the IS would simply shut down and be unable to move until the end of the match. Then it would return to its standby form like normal.

But either way, Houki's IS was depleted of energy and now just an obstacle, albeit one with an active AD. She was forced to watch as Bodewig and Orimura finally disengaged, just in time for Dunois to rejoin the fight she couldn't.

With Houki out of the picture, Orimura activated his one-off, Reiraku Byakuya, and his body glowed a familiar shade of dull gold. Dunois ran distraction, summoning a submachine gun and further pestering Bodewig with his small but numerous volume of pellets. With time, the damage would accumulate to something larger if Bodewig didn't do something about it. To increase the damage, Dunois charged while firing, his velocity adding to the muzzle velocity of each bullet, slightly upping the damage they caused. However, that proved to be a dismal mistake, as Bodewig just activated her AIC once again, Dunois' bullets hitting an invisible curtain and hanging in mid air. Once again, Bodewig leveled her rail gun at her prey, but was quickly forced to move away as Orimura slashed his shield killing sword where Bodewig used to be.

Bodewig retaliated with her guided daggers once again, but Orimura evaded them all with a simple spin and slashed again. Right before impact, Bodewig activated her AIC for the fourth time in 3 minutes, more times and faster than in her fight with me. This was probably the difference between the prototype I fought and her true personal IS. Bodewig yet again leveled her rail gun, only to be met with a face-full of rapid fire, delivered by Dunois' twin sub machine guns.

Supported by Dunois' covering fire, Orimura slashed a final time at Bodewig. It looked like the finishing blow, when suddenly the awesome aura around him faded like a flickering campfire running out of fuel. It was probably an appropriate simile as his one-off literally drained his shield energy, his fuel to keep battling. Bodewig countered the unfinished slash, Orimura barely evading it when Dunois covered Orimura's retreat with supporting fire.

Bodewig didn't take too kindly to that and launched her wire daggers, finally catching him in the side with one, her first solid hit of the fight that wasn't an ally. She then followed up her attack by slamming Orimura down into the ground, attempting to finish him with an impaling stab assisted by gravity. Suddenly, a blur of orange tackled the German, sending them spinning away from the weakened white IS.

A burst of acceleration us close-combat speed-types instantly recognized as Ignition Boost got Dunois close enough to Bodewig without giving her time to activate the AIC, firing his submachine guns all the way. In addition, the added speed increased his guns' muzzle velocity to speeds they really wouldn't be able get to normally. The added momentum even caused Bodewig to stagger to light machine gun fire. She flailed about, trying to recover from the high-speed pepper spray when Orimura shot Bodewig in the back with an assault rifle.

"It's Charles' assault rifle!" Rin exclaimed, instantly recognizing the weapon. He must've dropped it for Orimura to use should his shield energy run out.

Bodewig turned around, shooting a wire dagger at Orimura and catching him a light hit from the side. However, in doing that she allowed Dunois to approach to extreme close range, He jettisoned his arm guard, exposing his pile bunker.

He drove it into Bodewig's stomach and then detonated the explosive charge at the end. The instantaneous impact did crazy damage to the IS and blew it all the way to the near wall, almost directly under our vantage point. To finish off the antagonistic girl, Dunois charged and repeatedly blasted her in the belly with his pile bunker. Even without a detonation to fire it, it was still useful as a CQC weapon, causing much more damage than an unarmed IS fist would cause.

Dunois wound up for a deathblow, coiling his body when a blue shockwave emerged from Schwarzer Regen, knocking him back. Bodewig's IS somehow melted, that word being the only one I could think of to describe the phenomenon. Screaming with pain, a pain that echoed my own when I equipped Deep Purple, the black liquid-like mass enveloped the girl. She struggled to force her way out, but the shutters closed before I could see how she finally ended up.

Teachers of all classes and staff suddenly appeared at all the exits, declaring this was a Level D alert and that all students were to evacuate to the school. In a practiced, orderly manner, we escaped the arena, a testament to our training here. However, once we arrived in our classroom, chaos quickly replaced order as the class erupted in gossip. With the girls chattering so loudly and excitedly I couldn't even hear myself think, I escaped the room, only to be confronted with a teacher patrolling the halls for stupidly heroic or dangerously curious students. I valiantly attempted to convince the teacher to at least let me get some air on the roof, but it turned out to not be necessary: Just as soon as it started it ended, the "all clear" signal triumphantly resounded throughout the campus.

The whole class behind me erupted into cheers, then started gossiping so furiously I couldn't help but listen to it.

"What just happened? What happened to Laura?"

"Laura was in that black thing, right?"

"I hope we get to still fight, my family came today!"

"I hope Orimura-kun and Dunois-kun are all right..."

"I bet they were the ones who saved us."

"No it had to be the teachers, but I like that idea better."

The teacher finally let me pass and I sprinted for the elevator. My legs churned and burned, a side effect of pushing them so early since the Doctor gave me the ok to use them fully. He did warn me to properly warm up before strenuous exercise, but I didn't think a sudden sprint counted as strenuous. My body apparently disagreed.

I felt a hand rub my back, so I turned my head to see Nefer behind me. Apparently she was either already in the elevator or got in before me.

"I seriously don't see why you hate gossip like that so much," Nefer confided, still comforting me as I choked down gasps of pain.

"I told you why before, but if it's not that I hate baseless conversations about superficial and unverified topics, then it's I just that I can't stand loud, high-pitched noises. Metal on metal scratches, out of tune piccolos, nails on a chalkboard, things like that just tear my head right open. To be honest, it was one of my biggest fears in attending an all girls school," I explained, massaging my head while letting my legs burn. In a bit I would switch to relieve the other affected area.

We reached the roof and I immediately laid down on the sun-warmed tile.

"You know if you think about it, birds fly over this all the time. There must be poop everywhere," Nefer reasoned.

I turned blue following the train of logic, but lying in the sun like this just felt to good to give up for something like sanitation. "As long as I don't lick it, I'll be fine. I'm going to wash the uniform tonight anyways," I committed, mentally jotting it down in my list of things to do.

"Whatever, Ate," she surrendered, taking up a spot next to me. "You know, now that I actually tried it, I think you're right. Who cares if I just washed this uniform, I'll do it again tomorrow!"

"You know, making friends is like that, too," I winked at her from our horizontal position.

"You know, looking at you, I have a hard time believing that," she stated, sitting up and hugging her legs.

"Yea..." I agreed, but remaining on the floor.

"I remember you being really nice to everyone in the beginning of the year, trying to make new friends and protecting me like a big sister, but out of all the people you were nice to, only that girl with the really long sleeves visited you while you are in the hospital. I couldn't imagine why any of those other people visit you too, I mean you were friendly to them and everything. And I thought, if the Sever I look up to couldn't even make a lot of friends, then how could I?"

The sentence hung in the air, along with the realization that I've been allowing sentences to drop off way too easily. I remembered promising to act like the Sever she knew, so I gathered my confidence and made up something profound.

"It's not the number of good friends you have, but the fact you extend a feeling of friendliness towards them. Since you're so scared of people you're not forced to deal with, you don't have a chance to forge relationships and bonds with anyone. This world has at least 6 billion people on it at one time, there's no reason for any one person to take it on by themselves.

"In truth, it's possible to go it on your own, but living with you showed me that a life with other people in it makes the world a funner place to live. I mean, what's your life been like since we enrolled? Class, food, class, homework, training I guess, then sleep, right? The same routine over and over, except for the times I was in the infirmary. But with other people in your life, they introduce you to more and more varied things, simply due to the fact that they're not you. Some things won't be as fun for you as it is for them, but trust me. When you find a good friend, the majority will be fun. And the more good friends you make, the more fun things you will experience."

"I noticed that you've chosen to partner with that Nohotoke long-sleeve girl, rather than let a roulette choose for you like I did. Is that why you think so?"

"Ever since the first time I sparred against her, I actually felt like I was having fun learning IS, rather than training. Sparring with her was more like a game rather than a fight, even if we were using normally dangerous weaponry. In fighting, we're really in sync, but in all honesty we've yet to spend any other time together except for the time we watched anime together.

"But that's what you have to do to make friends, you have to give them some of your time, and they have to give you some of theirs. And it'll be really hard to find friends if you don't look like you want friends, so give a warm, friendly smile to everybody you see," I advised the girl, reaching with my long arm to rub her head.

She wrenched her head from my grip, accusing me with "You totally made all that up, didn't you? It had no flow and totally didn't sound like anything anyone would say normally."

I let my arm flop back to the ground as I admitted, "True, true, but still it's something I could totally believe in, even if it's something I just put into words just now. Think about it for a bit.

"But now a distraction: I didn't see your name on the board, does that mean I win the bet?"

"No, it's not like that!" she fiercely objected. "I totally qualified, but I just didn't make it into the seeding. If the fights finish quickly, I'll be in the first extra match, but with the emergency, I don't even know if we'll continue the tournament, much less have enough time for my fight."

"Well, in that case let's adjust the bet," I offered, wanting our challenge to be as fair as possible. "Let's request a special match, just you and I, or maybe our teams, just like in the tournament. And whoever wins that wins the bet, ok?"

"Fine, but I just want to fight you. The only one I want to prove myself to is you, so you should be the only one to fight me, " she declared, taking advantage of the leeway I gave her.

"Right then, we should probably get back to class. I'm sure the teachers must be going crazy looking for us."

Nope, just Honne, who cried with delight as she grabbed me around my waist and bawling, "I THOUGHT I'D NEVER FIND YOU! WAAAAH!"

"So what just happened here, Alcott-san, Rin?" I asked the other two girls who were in the elevator as Nefer and I boarded. Honne had immediately locked her arms around me while Nefer got an annoyed look on her face. I was tempted to match Nefer's look, but seeing this specific group of people made me a bit suspicious of their intent.

"Since you're all together and looking for me, I assume the tournament's back on?" I reasoned.

"Correct!" Rin exclaimed. "Let's get a move on, I don't want to be late! I'm super pumped up!"

When the elevator finally got to the bottom floor, Rin pried Honne off of me with the assistance of an all too eager Nefer. I was pulled out of Honne's grip, the owner of the grip helplessly dragged off at a fast pace.

At a more sedate pace, Cecilia and I followed. "So Alcott-san-" I started to say, before the blonde cut me off.

"It's Cecilia. Come on Ms. Sever," the girl easily pronounced my name due to actually having those sounds in her alphabet, "We've been in the same class for this entire year, spending all this time working together, although indirectly. And now, we're going to show off the fruits of our labor with friendly combat. I'm sure we can be at least on a first name basis."

_Hell, with the amount of time I've spent using a copy of your UAVs, we should be lovers by now,_ I sarcastically thought in my head. Instead I told her, "Well, in that case I hope we get closer and closer, Cecilia."

She smiled demurely, satisfied with my reaction. I rethought my opinion of her at this point, thinking I should try to befriend this girl as well. Just like I wanted to make friends by being friendly, I felt like I should wholeheartedly return the favor when someone is friendly to me. So I continued the conversation, "Why exactly are we still fighting even after that evacuation order?"

"Well," the well-informed girl explained, "I hear that the Academy itself wants to see how the top seeds fight. The other years will have their full tournaments when their times come up, but due to the threat, our year will only be able to get through the first round. If it finishes earlier than expected, the other qualified students will do fights of their own as well."

"Huh, makes sense."

"Hey you two, we're going to be late for the match!" Rin yelled at us, still dragging Honne as Nefer shyly waved bye to me, making her way to the stands with the rest of the girls.

"We'd better hurry too," Cecilia suggested, picking up the pace with a light jog. I followed her closely, entering the arena and psyching myself for the battle, hoping I don't go crazy like Bodewig did. Although I wasn't going to use it, I was still wearing my IS in standby form. It glowed hot, almost like it was mad at me for using a different IS. I wondered whether or not this was part of the learning thing Yamada-sensei mentioned early during the one of the first classes I had. Wait, in hindsight, is this the thing about seeing the IS like a lover? Ugh, is it seriously jealous of the Uchigane I had to use in public? I'll have to ask Orimura-sensei and the Doctor later.

* * *

><p>5 seconds before the fight starts. I tightened my IS's fist and braced myself for a rocket start, getting ready to leap into the air and intercept a back pedaling Cecilia with an Ignition Boost. As we planned before, Honne also got ready to attack Rin, due to the fact that she had changed her equipment package to something she felt fit her better. The plan was simple, I would use Ignition Boost to catch up to Cecilia before she got far enough to snipe at us. At a close enough range, I was sure that I would be able to either punch her back down to Earth or at least tackle her like I did Honne. Honne would distract Rin, prioritizing keeping Rin's attention on her until I could help her finish Rin off.<p>

4 seconds. Noticing the ground was soft behind me, I dug a small hole to assist with the push-off. Honne noticed and did the same, lining her body up with Rin's. The rule was for all fighters to be within a specific area, the centers exactly 50 meters apart, the boundaries visible to our IS AR (and in my case, my own personal AR). As close combat types, Honne, Rin, and I all advanced as close as the boundaries allowed us, about 30 meters away according to my sensors. As the lone long-range type, Cecilia placed herself at the back of the area, directly behind Rin. Therefore, Honne got as close as she could to Rin while I took an oblique angle of attack.

3 seconds. Using the summoning gate at my side, I called the IS magnum to my hand, inspected the bullet chambers and recalled it. Part of my personal strategy for Cecilia was to use the magnum to attack the UAVs. Orimura figured out long ago that Cecilia couldn't shoot while using the UAVs, although if she used them like I did, she could at the cost of destroying her weaponry. I figured a proud, conservative girl like her wouldn't purposefully destroy her weapons for the sake of sniping something, and especially when a speedy close-combat IS was chasing her like a bloodhound.

2 seconds. "I just need to keep her busy as much as possible, right?" Honne whispered to me across a private channel. I nodded my head silently, focusing on my target. As I said, Honne had changed her equipment around to a style she felt suited her better. Unfortunately, she changed it almost exactly two day's ago right before practical training for the tournament. She saw some anime or game with ninjas in it, I don't remember which, and apparently was enthralled with how they fought. So the idiot went and researched the database for weapons close enough to that style...and registered that equipment for the tournament. So, instead of using the strategies that we came up with and practiced for 5 days, we spent two days of sparring to get Honne used to a new way of fighting, with even less time for combination attacks. So Honne's revised strategy became "Get Rin Aggro'd So She Wouldn't Assist Cecilia".

1 second. Preparations complete, all systems go. I inhaled deeply, getting ready to shout our battle cry. Without looking, I knew Honne was doing the same thing. The clouds covered the sun, removing the advantage we had by facing away from the setting sun. Now, without the sun in her eyes, Cecilia just became a lot more dangerous. I opened the panels on my gauntlets, ready for Ignition Burst.

0 seconds. "!"

Ok, not the best battle cry in the world, but anything else just didn't feel right. We could quote anime all day, but nothing beats a simple one-syllable word.

Ignition Burst flung me towards Cecilia, crossing 50 meters in half a second. The stabilizers erased all inertia, sparing me the G-force created from accelerating to almost a third the speed of sound in the space of half a second. However, I underestimated the power of Cecilia's kick-off. Her leg parts were HUGE, and I should have expected they would have the raw power to kick-off to so far away. Luckily for me, I only had to make a minute adjustment to tackle her straight on. However, the tackle never came as Cecilia raised her rifle, and no-scoped me right in the chest. I took a 100-unit blow to my shield energy, but the shot did little to effect my momentum, now out of control from the attack. I slammed into Cecilia who clearly overestimated the stopping power of her rifle and sent us tumbling into the arena shield. By some trick of fate, we both collided equally into that shield, causing approximately equal amounts of damage. My stabilizers only activated during thruster use, so I fought just as hard as Cecilia did to recover our bearings. I summoned my magnum and shot between where the two images of Cecilia rotated around my field of vision, the recoil of the high-caliber weapon throwing my rigid body for a loop due to not having solid ground to brace myself upon. I heard a scream and an explosion, my bullet had found its way into one of the UAVs.

In response, she shot a pair of missiles at me from the large Tears near her hips. I squeezed off another shot before the two impacted, sending me crashing back into the shield by attacking me obliquely. I rolled along the side of the shield, taking heavy damage from the two missiles. The alarm started ringing in my ears, the energy already below 50. Something was up, her missiles are more powerful than the one's I copied before. But luck was on my side, the second bullet detonated another Tear as I wanted. The explosion I heard wiped away my shock of receiving such a damaging blow. I pushed off the shield as fast as possible, narrowly evading a follow-up shot from her rifle. I criss-crossed the distance back to Cecilia, who kept jumping back and no-scoping, similar to Honne in our first spar, but definitely more used to the maneuver. Only the high-speed maneuvering with the nausea canceled by the stabilizers kept the girl from getting a lucky hit.

We danced in the air, a crazy ballet taking us from edge to edge when Cecilia finally ran out of ammo for her rifle. She sent out her remaining two UAVs, trusting her body to remember how to reload. The two circled around me while firing, a feat I wouldn't be able to duplicate myself. I maniacally changed directions over and over again, taking a chance on random movement being able to keep the Cecilia concentrated on my position. Even with the stabilizers, anybody would've fainted from having their orientation changed so chaotically, but then again not anybody has sparred with Honne for 2 days while she was learning her new fighting style.

Finally the moment that I was waiting for came, a lull in the battle as Cecilia returned her UAVs to their dock, most likely to recharge them although I've never had a need to do that myself. I locked my arms and aimed at the two images of Cecilia once more, another trick I practiced with Honne for two days but with two feet on the ground. Learning from incredibly recent experience, I flared my thrusters as I fired the gun. The recoil still caused me to throw my arms up, but the thrusters on my grieves and shoulder guards kept me from flipping backwards. I brought my arms down and fired again, now without the blue IS in front of me doubled and spinning. I fired again, and again, and again, depleting my gun's ammo, then my body took over as the habit of reloading quickly took over.

The first shot (third bullet) hit the sniper rifle Cecilia was about to fire, knocking it off course and sending the fired shot harmlessly upward to dissipate in the atmosphere. The second and third punctured holes in the body of the gun, rendering it unusable while the last bullet knocked the gun out of her hands.

"I'm not finished yet!" I heard her shout as she fired her remaining weapons, the two UAVs. One circled to my back while the second shot an immense beam of energy. I reacted by flipping in the air, the beam almost nuzzling my back with a scorching caress. But then something unexpected happened: the first UAV that circled behind me absorbed the immense energy shot, then fired it back at me at an even greater intensity. Utterly defenseless in mid-flip, the energy slammed into me, rocketing me into something that gave way, then into the ground marking yet another crater I've made in this floor, the count now numbering in the 50-somethings due to practicing with Honne. The IS display grew dim to a red screen.

IS System Notification: Cannot Continue Fighting

My IS refused to move due to the lack of shield energy. Immediately, a window came up notifying me that the IS had 1 unit left and the arena shields had been extended to us, but to not participate in the match. This was probably to safeguard disabled IS from errant attacks from active participants, and to allow us to move if we happened to lose in an uncomfortably awkward position.

"I'm sorry, Sever-san, but could you please get off me!" an irritated British accent verified my previous hypothesis.

Right now, I was in the lap of Cecilia's Blue Tears IS, whose legs took up most of the volume within our little crater. I rolled off the girl, stood up and helped her out of the hole. We then sat our IS together near the hole, after which both our IS immediately released steam and locked up, probably due to some control up in the observation tower.

"Mou! I should have won that!" the Englishwoman complained to me, now that our battle was over.

"Hey, I was doing pretty good out there! I was able to evade from a great deal of your attacks, even running on 50 units!" I objected, defending my performance in the fight.

"Hey, wait, when did you get down to such a low amount?" she inquired. I told her about how the first shot depleted me by 100, while the missiles took me all the way down to about 50.

"If Uchiganes have 500 units, then each missile did 175 units of damage? They are a lot more powerful..." she mused to herself out loud.

"You did something to them?"

"No, but they upgraded the Blue Tears system while they repaired the IS. You saw the new ability of the Tears themselves right? They can not only charge up attacks, but they can absorb and redirect the attack, even augmenting the beam with it's own energy. It depletes each Tear's own weapon energy to do so, but they can be recharged when docked. It's a good idea, but I had no idea how much power they could have," she bragged. "Can you imagine what all four would've done?"

"No, thank you, two was enough. And don't get me started on the missiles," I laughed, truly thankful I didn't experience a full four tear blast. "So, what do you mean you should've won? I mean, I held out for a while even with the 50 units left. You don't think I would've stood a chance?"

"Well, no offense to your skills, Sever-san, but if I had more time to practice and get used to the new equipment you should have been defeated early on. The first mistake I made was underestimating the power of the rifle. I figured you would Boost to me since that's what you've been practicing all this week. But that speed is so fast that you can barely turn, so all I had to do was aim down the straight trajectory you would have to take and shoot. Jumping backwards just gave me more time to aim."

"But my momentum was too great for your shot to stop, correct?" I interrupted. "And since you were firing straight down the line of my trajectory, that meant you were in my trajectory. And since I didn't slow down enough for you, I collided into you and we both lost our battle flow."

"Right," she nodded her assent, "After slowing you down, I would either kick you or shoot you again with the rifle while sending the Tears to your back. From there I would shoot you from the back and the front simultaneously, trapping you in the crossfire until you were defeated."

"Good plan," I commented. "Alright, so if there was a 'first' mistake, what was the second?"

"The second was forced upon by you, actually. That lucky shot of your detonated one of my tears, since the explosion was so close my ears were ringing and it screwed up my concentration. I accidentally launched the missiles as you destroyed another Tear. I started firing randomly in the direction I thought you were in and jumping back in random directions, trying to keep you away from me while I recovered from the shock."

"You did hit me with that attack, you know? The missiles?" I reminded her.

"I didn't mean for that to happen so it was a mistake," she reiterated. "The final mistake was how strong the augmented Tears shot was. Originally, I had planned to slam you into the ground with a kick and hopefully finishing you off. But that shot rocketed you into me so fast, I couldn't react and we collided a final time. What finished me off was the crash we made, me breaking your fall."

"Well, thanks," I gratefully sighed. "If it counts for anything, it was an extremely comfortable landing compared to a normal impact."

"I'd slap you for that if I could," she retorted, already embarrassed by her misestimations.

"Sorry, I'm bad at timing. If you drop by the cooking club sometime and I'm there, I'll make you some snacks. Not to brag, but I'm quite confident in my baking skills."

"I'll take you up on that," Cecilia promised, just as Nefer came flying through the air near us. She recovered upon landing, her blade in the ground to assist. She looked at me with an irritated look on her face, as if wanting to say "The hell just happened?"

I returned her a look that I hoped said "I'm sorry, she was a lot better prepared than I was."

She sped off to meet Rin in yet another clash of blades. The light purple IS Shenlong had pulled out its twin scimitars and was duel-wielding them with reckless abandon, slashing this way and that filling the space in front of her with sharp blade. The glowing marks on her weapons wove an intricate web of red light that glowed strongly, even from where Cecilia and I were sitting. Honne stayed just out of reach from the blades, probably having already estimated Rin's range while Cecilia and I fought. Then, she jumped in the air, releasing a small grey sphere. I saw a flash of terror across Rin's face as her blade slashed through the dull sphere, which then exploded in her face. The force sent Nefer flying away with the aid of a sheet that she had equipped.

"I can't believe she fell for it twice," Cecilia noted incredulously, "that girl just did it twice in a row."

"Really?"

"That's why your partner flew over here a little while ago, Sever-san," she explained.

"Huh," I remarked, "then it's all going according to plan."

"What do you mean?"

"As long as you don't relay it back to Rin, I'll tell you," I cautioned.

"I swear upon my pride as an Alcott, I will not tilt the balance no more than my presence allows."

"The hell does that mean? Well whatever," I brushed off the remark, "I'm going to assume that means you won't tell her."

She pouted as the meaning of her words went over my head.

"Basically, we wanted to take you out first, then Honne and I would tag team in and out until Rin went down. The problem is keeping Rin distracted enough for me defeat you before she turned her attention to me. So Nefer learned the best way to attack an opponent and get away quickly, which is what you see right now. She gets into her opponent's face, trades a few blows or makes the opponent flurry, then drops a grenade into the mix and flies away using the sheet to capture the force from the grenade and send her flying. This both damages the opponent and blinds them, giving time for Honne to approach and attack. Ooh, watch this, she's going to do something awesome," I pointed out, nodding in their direction.

Honne had the short blade she was using reversed in her hand, the blade facing out. Blinded by the explosion but not flailing wildly this time, Rin caught a vicious uppercut, sending her dazed body high into the sky.

"See, this was supposed to be a join attack between she and I, that's why she's holding the sword in a reverse grip. That's the signal for the combo. It's a sword the Japanese called a tanto, sized for IS that Honne found a couple days ago. Anyways, she'll uppercut with the reversed blade as you saw, sending the opponent into the air. After that, I would jump up after and drive her into the ground. But eventually Honne learned to do it by herself," I explained while Honne executed the maneuver. "It's a bit weaker than my attack because she doesn't have all the thrusters I have, but it'll still work."

Honne's equipment consisted of the cape, the grenades, the tanto, and grieves similar to mine. The rest of her BUS slots were stabilizers like mine, although she didn't have enough to use ignition boost like I did without throwing up. She could withstand the force of the grenade's explosion however, which is why she could recover so fast even though such a close explosion should affect her as well.

Using the thrusters on her grieves, she leapt up to the defenseless Rin. She kneed her in the stomach, then flipped her over, activating the thrusters once more to drive Rin headfirst into the ground. Due to Honne's awkward position, the thrusters gave the pair rotational speed, the light purple and grey blurring together. At maximum speed, they crashed into the ground, an explosion rocking the atmosphere. Wait, an explosion?

Another crater decorated the arena floor, smoking with the charred remains of the explosion. From the smoke, an IS emerged grey as the morning fog. My heart leapt in the air, only to be slammed back into my chest by my eyesight as I recognized the shape of the IS. Shenlong emerged from the smoke, covered in grey ashes. She stood on shaky legs and conspicuously without her shoulder guards. She forced a proud fist into the air, probably taking the last of her mental strength to do so as the crowd cheered the two winners' names. The two VIPs from England and China gave their two representatives a standing ovation for the victory. The arena shield lifted and our disabled IS powered up. Cecilia and I made our way over to Rin, and I shook her hand for a well done win. While shaking, I asked her, "How'd you do that?"

She released my hand and shrugged her tired shoulders. "I shot the Ryuuhou at her right before we hit the ground. Shooting it so close makes the equipment itself explode, so I used it as a cushion as well as an attack. I guess the explosion must've finally got her."

"But wasn't she doing rather well against you?" Cecilia jumped in. "I know that it does do some damage, but she had a good rhythm going on. What happened?"

"I bet I know..." I started out slowly. "Yeah...see Honne's the type who learns with her body. If you teach her something theoretical, she won't understand it until you apply it to something she can do herself. This includes that Izuna Drop she pulled off on you in the last moments."

"Izuna Drop?" Rin confirmed, committing the maneuver to memory so that she could use it later.

"Yeah, she got it from some anime or game she played. She did that to me so much, I learned how to fire bullets semi-accurately even when dizzy."

Cecilia nodded her head with an awed look, probably realizing that my shooting of her Tears was a little more than luck, but most likely not entirely skill.

"Anyways," I continued, "I bet she took a lot of hits in the beginning until she got used to how close Rin actually needs to be to attack. Not only that, but that grenade still affects Honne as well, damaging her little by little, but not as much as it does to Rin. I bet she was running on fumes when she went for the Buster. She probably felt she need a big attack to finish it, and she would use more grenades to finish you once you were embedded in the ground. But it looks like you countered that."

I peeked over the edge of the crater, Honne laid out with an incredibly dazed look on her face. I picked her up while Cecilia lent Rin a shoulder, and we made for the closest runway, the stadium's applause to our backs. The staff inside assisted us with the removal of our IS and took them to be repaired and recharged. As for us, the teachers escorted us into the bath area, where we washed away the sweat from our bodies. We only took off our stockings because the pilot suits were already swimsuits.

"What are those?" Cecilia asked me with a trace of trepidation in her voice. The unusually-asked question caught the attention of an inquisitive Honne and a curious Rin.

I followed her eyes to my now exposed arms, still covered with faded scars from my first bout with Noctores Gospel. The crème I'd been using got washed away from the bath just like when Laura knocked me in here before, a fact I was too tired to remember would happen.

"I do a lot of practice," I answered purposefully evasive, sinking into the water enough to hide my scars and letting the girls know I really didn't want to talk about it. Unfortunately for me, Honne didn't quite get it and started poking at a particularly big one before Rin pulled her off me. We sat in silence for a few minutes before getting out.

* * *

><p>"OK, what are you all doing here?"<p>

"Like I said, Nefer, having a picnic," I stated the obvious, again purposefully avoiding the real meaning of the words.

"Not that," Nefer interjected, "What's everyone doing here?"

"Watching the sunset?" Honne innocently replied, not knowing enough of our backstory to know exactly what Nefer was irritated about.

"No, I mean how did a small picnic for us two turn into a sun-viewing party?" Nefer finally gave in to admitting her distaste in seeing such a huge group of people laying down on blankets and munching on snacks and sandwiches.

"Well, after I messaged you, I was baking brownies and putting together sandwiches for our picnic when Cecilia walked in," I started to explain.

"After she showed me where all non-expired food was, I started helping her and Ms. Sever invited me to the picnic," Cecilia added.

"Then I came in looking for Cecilia, who was making sandwiches with her, and Sever invited me too. So I started making pork buns," Rin continued.

"I'm going to join the cooking club, so I watched them all and took notes. Then I got invited," Dunois followed up.

"I just followed Charles over here. When he got invited, so did I, so I contributed by making tea," Orimura admitted, shaking his thermos.

"I followed Ichika, and when the boys got invited, I did too," Houki followed up.

"I just happened to be here when they came up, so I joined them!" Honne exclaimed with a cheery smile.

"...I smelled the brownies," Bodewig sheepishly confessed, trying to keep a straight face. When I noticed her, I had quickly called her over to me, thinking there might be some animosity between Bodewig, Houki, Cecilia, and Rin from this morning. Rin started to object when Orimura silenced her with a gentle hand on her shoulder. The three had watched patiently as Bodewig took a seat next to me and gratefully accepted the brownie I handed her. It seemed her attention was fixated on the brownies and the sunset, so I moved the picnic basket with the desserts closer to her. When she noticed, her eyes lit up with a glee only I could recognize before returning to her vacant stare. The four other girls had crowded around Orimura, although Honne was really there to be close to the basket with food. Dunois guarded the basket with a watchful eye, but only distributed them to those who hadn't tried to steal half the sandwiches for herself without anyone noticing. The thermos of tea sat empty at the corner of one of the sheets, much too little for the amount of food and people we had.

"Orimura, mind grabbing me a soda? Normal cola should do. Also, Dunois-san, can you please hand me a sandwich?" I asked of the two men. Orimura rose to fulfill the request while Dunois handed me a sandwich. In turn I handed it to Nefer, saying "It's still fun to have a lot of people here. Sit down a spell and watch. The red sun is making some crazy colors in the sky. It's quite comfortable."

"Fine," Nefer finally conceded defeat and sat down on the other side of me and hooked herself into the crook of my arm, engaging a half-embrace that seemed to comfort her. Watching the sunset, we ate the food and sent Orimura every 5 minutes or so to grab more drinks. While doing that, we chatted about our own origins (well everyone but Bodewig, who I'm sure was listening). Just small talk involving our families, hobbies, academics, the regret that we couldn't use our combo attacks (to which Rin promised us a rematch) and the fact Nefer and I were siblings.

* * *

><p>The next day was the biggest surprises yet, although one I felt I should've seen coming. The second was completely out of left field, especially for me who knew some backstory behind it.<p>

Firstly, Dunois came to school with a short skirt and a bust that could have made Orimura-sensei jealous, if she were present. Yamada reintroduced him as a her, Charlotte Dunois. I banged my head quite loudly on the desk, but the room quickly erupted in gossip that eclipsed even that loud knock. With the revelation Dunois was a girl, the class quickly made logical conjectures regarding the state of affairs between she and Orimura:

Since they were in the same room, he had to have known Dunois true gender. They slept together.

They had apparently taken a bath together while we thought they were both boys. Naked.

As soon as this outcome came to light, Rin smashed through the wall from her class in full IS.

"Ichika!" She yelled angrily, charging up her Ryuuhou cannons.

Just then, Bodewig stepped between the two and summoned her own IS, using the AIC to stop the cannon's projectile. It dissipated into thin air instead of hanging like normal projectiles, leaving me to wonder exactly what it was made of.

"Laura! You saved me! Than-" Orimura tried to thank her when the second surprise happened, and one I'm not quite too sure how to explain.

Bodewig interrupted Orimura's gratitude by dragging his collar to her lips and gave him a passionate kiss in front of the whole class. The entire room was still with shock, with the exception of me who valiantly tried to keep my laughter under control.

"I-I," Bodewig stuttered with a slight blush. "I will make you my bride. It's a decided matter. I will not accept objections. The ladies reacted with a confused noise, prompting me to finally erupt in laughter from the absurdity of the situation.


	9. Chapter 9 Required Beach Episode

Chapter 9 – Required Beach Episode: Rejected!

Author's Note: Why can't I write happy scenes? Or good dialogue? Blah!

I really wish I had planned it this way. I was reading through my criticisms and I completely agreed with them. The problem was, well, I was entirely too lazy to go through there and fix the story so it didn't seem so Sue-y. Then I came up with this. I tried my best to write this in the best way possible, but if it doesn't work please let me know. If necessary, I'll get off my ass and rewrite the beginning.

Also, the person who'd been beta-reading for me has finally been assigned to a ship and left my city. Therefore I don't have anyone proofing this for me, except myself. I'm not sure how this beta-reader program works, but if anyone would like to assist me, please let me know. I'd be happy to return the help in any way I can.

* * *

><p>Chapter Start<p>

* * *

><p>"So, why do you want to marry him now? The day before you wanted to kill him, right?" I asked the profusely blushing Laura. Just reminding her of her fervent declaration earlier today sent the girl into fits of crimson embarrassment that I found incredibly fun to illicit. It reminded me of a younger Nefer, but without the anxiety issues.<p>

"Now, now Sever-san, you're a girl, too aren't you?" Charles, no Charlotte chastised me, protecting her socially awkward new roommate. She led the way to our destination, holding Laura's hand in hers to make sure the German didn't trip and fall from her dazed strolling. "Don't you understand what she's feeling?"

"Not a clue!" I chirped cheerily, looking back at our final entourage member.

"I-I don't see what being a girl has to do with wanting to kill me," Orimura grumbled, managing to get out his opinion on the subject while struggling with the numerous luggages he was carrying and missing the tomato-faced Laura desperately avoiding his eye. "Either way, Seberu, mind helping me with this luggage?"

"Oh, no no no, Ichika-kun, how could these _frail delicate arms_ carry such heavy luggages? We desperately_ needed a man to help,_" I exaggeratedly echoed his earlier words, though well-meaning were kind of unnecessary since two of us had personal IS that they could use at any time (the third was still classified and needed to be kept secret).

We were carrying Charlotte's things to her new room in the afternoon after the two girls made surprising declarations. Now that the fact Charlotte was a girl was public, the Academy staff wasted no time transferring Charlotte to the only dorm with a roommate available: Laura's.

The news got to her while I was helping her bake tea scones in club. Charlotte had just joined, so our advisor the cook had paired the complete newbie up with me. She had requested we learn to bake the snacks when she found out my true forte was in baking pastries, so we looked up a bunch of recipes. It turns out the secret to tea scones is the tea served with them, so we dragged in a certain tea-loving student to assist us. Unfortunately, Orimura's presence caused the other girls to get distracted and forget about their own projects. One pot of stew started to boil over and steam off the metal. I gave the owner of the pot in question a death gaze, then cast that gaze towards the other girls who had abandoned their tasks: a silent warning that God will smite you for wasting food. Or at least I will in His place.

Ever since I started coming back to club, I quickly resumed my position of unofficial leadership. The current president did not take nicely to this, quitting the club along with a majority of the rest of them. The ones who had stayed where the ones who've actually tried my food before and wanted to learn.

In any case, once order was restored in our little room, Orimura advised us on what pastries went with different teas, eventually settling on making some brand of English tea to go with the gingerbread scones we found in our research.

"How the hell do you know so much about tea?" I had inquired of the man, surprised to know he had such an odd bit of knowledge not stereotypical for men to have.

"After Chifuyu-nee returned from Germany," he had explained, "She brought back a variety of European teas. Unfortunately, while an excellent IS pilot, she's completely abysmal at domestic chores. Thus, I picked up a good amount of knowledge in the marital arts, although she did teach me to swing a sword properly," attempting to rescue his dwindling manhood with at least one masculine talent.

"But both Orimura-sensei and even Houki are much better with a katana then you are," I had teased him, shamelessly putting an arm around him and giving him a noogie when Laura charged in from the open doorway and tackled me.

Or at least tried to tackle me when something caused her to lose focus and slip, taking out Orimura's legs while I jumped over the two. They crashed into the corner of the room, Orimura's head hitting the wall hard. Laura had a significantly softer landing, her body cradle by Orimura's protective embrace, probably an instinctual reaction due to the fact that Orimura held onto Laura rather tight. This would be all well and good, if not for the fact that Laura was inverted in relation to Orimura, her head dangerously close to his pelvis.

Oh crap.

"I need water, a first aid kit, and the infirmary doctor!" I listed, pointing at the three nearest girls in turn, issuing orders, not requests. Then, I heard a shrill scream and a thud. The cook had fainted, all 200 something pounds of him hitting the floor hard while one of the other girls slumped to the ground, apparently frozen with shock. Great, now I have four people to take care of.

I pointed to the second to last girl still standing and told her, "Get her out of here! Take her back to her dorm or your dorm or somewhere! Get her something sweet to munch on, too!" The girl saluted me and then escorted the other shocked girl out of the room. I bent down to fight with Orimura's hands, trying to get him to release the German girl.

While we struggled with Orimura's protective instincts, I yelled over my shoulder, "Charlotte, turn off all the stovetops!" I heard knobs click as the girl quickly went to all of the stoves to turn off their burners. Meanwhile, I had finally pried Orimura's fingers open, dropping Laura's face directly on Orimura's crotch.

The man howled an otherworldly cry, jolting upright and throwing Laura onto the floor in front of him.

Laura fell face first on the floor, her jacket making an audible skid as she lay, twitching minutely. "...Warm..." she mumbled, giggling helplessly.

_Ok, she's fine, but just in case..._"Charlotte, can you please watch over her?" I asked the French girl, waving a hand dismissively at the girl's charge. She gave me a questioning look at me, probably wondering why I passed her over so quickly when she realized what Laura was saying. She turned bright red and started trying to snap her out of whatever trance she was in, assisted by the girl who had just brought in a bucket of water. I took the bucket from her and checked on Orimura, who probably was in the greatest pain out of anybody in this room. He held himself while I acted as a shield, obscuring the vision of anyone who had happened to walk in the room. I gave him a serious look that said, "Do what you need to do, I won't say anything". In reply, he sent me a grateful look, then proceeded to do whatever guys do to relieve themselves of pain down there. I carefully averted my gaze from the area, focusing on checking Orimura's head for signs of a concussion, or at the very least damage. I had soaked a clean towel in water in case of bleeding, but luckily enough all he had was a light bump. Guess guys are made of stern stuff. After he finished, I asked him questions about how he was feeling, making sure he was cognizant, could see clearly and he could hear clearly. I was quickly relieved by the doctor who asked the same questions as I did, making sure he didn't have a concussion.

The cook didn't want to wake up, so I just examined him for injuries. Eventually the doctor finished with Orimura, walked over to the cook and examined him, giving me an appreciative nod. I nodded back and rejoined Orimura, who had by now recovered enough to stand. As I helped him to his feet, the girl who I had sent out to get the first aid kit returned empty handed. I made a mental note to request one for future accidents while telling everyone that the club would end early, due to our advisor currently being carried by stretcher to the infirmary by the doctor and a clearly struggling nurse. After finishing their dishes, I critiqued them as best I could and sent them on their way. Charlotte and Orimura helped me load the dishes into the dishwasher while Laura sat dazed in the corner, out of the way.

After cleaning up the room, Charlotte told us that Laura was coming to tell her that she was to move in with her. Both of us free, Orimura and I offered to help with the move. Charlotte and I had finally finished packing all of her things, Laura still being no help at all, when Orimura insisted that he take Charlotte's luggage. We resisted his help until he said the forbidden words no independent girl wanted to hear. Then we dumped on him all the luggage, chatting all the while to Charlotte's new room.

* * *

><p>Once we arrived, we found that Charlotte's ID still didn't unlock Laura's door. Luckily, the original tenant was with us, but <em>still<em> in her little dream world. No matter what the three of us said, nothing seemed to penetrate the cloud of her mind.

"Alright, we'll have to resort to drastic measures," I declared, drawing an even more confused look from Charlotte.

"How so?" Orimura asked, as I assisted him in putting the luggage down. I felt I owed him something for the incident about to occur.

"Well basically, I need to do this. Don't worry, you'll probably live through it."

"Wait, wha-" Orimura didn't get to finish his objection when a black fist punched him all the way down the hall.

Charlotte gaped at me incredulously while Laura clutched her breast pocket with her left hand, her right hand hyperextended and encased in IS metal.

"Looks like shock heals shock," I remarked, rubbing my now stinging hand from not letting go of Orimura quickly enough. "But now I got another patient to attend to. You guys mind opening the room so I can carry him in?" I said offhandedly as I went to go get Orimura. As I spun around, Charlotte sent me a dirty look I couldn't exactly translate, so all I did was smile idiotically. Laura, however, dutifully opened the door.

I walked to the dizzied Orimura, who had taken the comical punch quite well. He looked no worse for wear, but he did get a small cut in his hair. A bit of blood seeped out, but it wasn't terrible.

"Hmm, looks like you got a small cut on your head," I reported to the poor guy.

"And who's fault is that?" he yelled at me, not much for the injury but for that fact I forced him to molest Laura.

"Sorry, sorry," I apologized, miming a blow to my head and sticking out my tongue.

Orimura shuddered, "Ok, please don't do that again. I had such a good mental image of you and now its ruined by that uncharacteristically cute thing you attempted to do. I mean seriously, it just doesn't work for you."

"Meh, you know someone else told me that same exact thing a short bit ago. What kind of image did you have of me?" I asked as I helped him back to his feet. He slouched on my offered back, probably still dizzy from the punch even if he didn't show it.

"An image that does not scream cute," he candidly admitted. "You know, you act more like a guy than a girl. That's why things like that don't suit you. Focus on acting cool and mature, it's a lot easier to accept," he implored me, a harsh piece of advice that resonated with my own self-image.

"Fine, fine, but only because Nefer agrees with you," I acquiesced to his request, just as I dropped him onto a bed. Charlotte immediately got out some paper towels and started tending to Orimura's wound.

"Mou, Sever-san," Charlotte complained, echoing her fellow European's noise for disapproval, "that was uncalled for."

"That was your doing?" Laura lunged at me, a quick pivot of my legs just barely moving me out of her reach. Like a cat she absorbed the landing with all four limbs and curled up for another lunge. Once more I dodge, the girl once again flying past me like a bull charging past a matador. However, behind me was Orimura and Charlotte, both with little time to attack. Once again, Orimura's instinct was to protect the girl, so he shoved Charlotte to where I was and absorbed Laura's pounce into his embrace.

For my part, I absorbed Charlotte's impact with bent limbs, allowing her to regain her own balance and turn around to see Laura snuggling into a panicked Orimura's chest. Both Charlotte and I shook our heads with resignation to our fate, and dragged the now incredibly cutely mewing cyclops off of the man. Pried free from Orimura, Laura once again resumed the personality of a soldier: calm, serious, and the burning will to kick my ass reflected in her eyes.

"Ms. Sever, the Instructor would like the both of us to meet her in R&D room 1 after dinner at 2000 hours. Please finish all your obligations before arriving, as she expects us to both be exhausted by the night's end."

"So that's why you went looking for me in the cooking club? To relay Orimura-sensei's message?"

"Precisely. I look forward to our training together..."she smiled that demonic smile once again, but out of the four of us only she and I knew what it meant.

"Ugh, she's got you training too?" Orimura sympathized with my plight.

"Remember when I took that joyride a while ago, right before I was in traction for a week?" I explained, referencing the cover story Orimura-sensei, Dr. Nebata and I came up with. "The punishment that came after everything from IS drills to practical first aid. A lot of first aid...And then after that, Yamada-sensei saw fit to assist me with even more combat training after dinner. It eased up a bit so I could practice teamwork with Honne, but now that the tournament's over, I was expecting my old schedule to come back with a vengeance."

"Ah, so that's how come you were able to respond so quickly. Did you have an interest in things like that?" Charlotte asked, her eyes shining with the thought of how heroic a life of saving people sounded.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that I was really taught first aid as punishment for my heartless treatment of the badly injured X yesterday, so instead I shrugged my shoulders and looked towards Orimura who was about to speak.

"I'm in the same boat, although I didn't steal an IS to get in it," Orimura said with a smile, taking his own little shot at me. "But ever since I got Byakushiki, I've been IS training with Charles everyday, except for Sunday."

Charlotte's angelically shining face turned dark for a fraction of a second, a skill I noticed a lot of the girls around Orimura had. I think it was because Orimura used her alter ego's name, rather than her real one. After quelling her internal darkness, she stood up and grabbed Orimura by the ear, dragging him outside and saying, "Well, looks like its time for another session. Let's go, Orimura-kun," conspicuously using his family name rather than his first name.

Orimura struggled against the petite blonde's hidden strength, which easily dragged him along the hallway towards the exit. I waved a hearty goodbye to the powerless male, grinning from ear to ear at his misfortune.

"What are you so happy about?" A cold voice from behind me demanded. I turned around to see a grouchy Laura standing as straight as possible, arms folded. Truth be told, with that eyepatch on she cut an impressively intimidating figure. Unfortunately, I towered about 25 cm above her head, and from my perspective she looked like a pouting china doll. Non-deterred by the height disadvantage, she continued, "You were the reason for all of his tragedies today!"

"That's why I'm smiling," I admitted, fully embracing the fact that I thought it hilarious, "but I'm not the _only_ cause. Who tackled Orimura and sent him crashing into a corner?"

A blush appeared on the angry girl's face, meekly defending herself with, "I was aiming for you."

The opening I was hoping for; I noticed that her personality went from cold to girly when Orimura's involved. "Then I hope your aim continues to excel late into the night, I do hate to go to bed tired," I taunted the girl, a savage smile sneaking into my face.

Accepting my challenge, Laura returned my smile and declared, "Don't worry, I hardly miss with this." Without missing a beat, she summoned her rail gun and leveled it at my face. In addition, she held out her hand, noticeably locking her joints so it would be difficult to shake.

I took her hand in my own, squeezing it with all I could muster while not taking my eyes off the gun. I doubted she would actually use it, but that thing still sends chills up my back, and I can't even do partial summoning yet.

"Then I'm off to do homework, see you at 2000 hours," I departed the room with those words, quickly making my way back to my own dorm just in time to avoid pissing my pants from fright. In hindsight, chills down my back are simply not enough to describe how that gun made me feel, especially right in front of my face like that. Again, my right hand burned, as if the IS was angry at my cowardice. I ignored the sensation and focused on voiding my body of waste.

* * *

><p>After arriving at my dorm and refreshing myself, I made good on my word and started on homework when a light cough from behind me grabbed my attention.<p>

"Nefer? What are you doing in bed?"

"I felt sick, Ate, so I got permission to take some days off by the doctor," Nefer explained. The girl definitely looked sick, her face was flushed and she had little bags under her eyes. She must have not been sleeping well either. But one thing still bugged me.

"So why are you in my bed?"

Nefer flushed redder, and excused herself with, "I was sick, so I just stumbled into the closer bed. Sorry Ate, I didn't mean to."

"And you want me to treat you like an equal, right?" I echoed her words back, still never giving up a chance to tease her.

"Sorry Ate, but right now can you baby me? I'm really not feeling too well," she dramatically sighed, selling her illness much more than she needed to.

"Of course, Nefer. Give me a minute, I'll make some soup."

I returned with a tray and a steaming bowl of hot soup, the rest of the pot devoured by the cook and the rest of the cooking club.

"Here, I made it just like I used to. When you get better, I'll show you how to make it too."

"Thanks, Ate," she said as she picked up the spoon on the tray and started eating. I pulled a bottle of orange juice from my secret fridge and set it in front of her, to which she smiled gratefully. I sat in my chair and pulled up the homework on the computer in our room. I wanted to pull up my AR to assist me with the homework, but I noticed that it was really hard for me to use my AR and focus on a task. Every time I attempted to concentrate on anything, the AR would bring up some factoid or related article about what I was concentrating on. If I was looking at an assigned article and I focus on the picture, the AR would bring up some other articles referencing either the picture or what the picture depicted. Then, focusing on those would bring up other articles. To illustrate the point, the day after I stated attending classes again after the black IS incident, an assigned reading on IS sync rate pulled up an article on 1st shift. This was quite interesting to me as now I have my own, so I looked that up. 1st shift brought up an article on one-offs, which led to the database entry of every single IS's one-off that had one. It took me three hours to finally tear myself away from the articles before I realized I only had 3 hours of sleep left. Class and training afterward was horrible after that lack of sleep.

So I finished my homework with 15 minutes left before the time Orimura-sensei had specified for training. Nefer had gone to sleep while I studied, so I gave her a peck on the cheek "Good Night" and left for R&D 1, grabbing an energy bar from my snack drawer to replace the dinner I missed. I stopped by Laura's dorm to pick her up, but there was no response. I assumed Laura was already there, while Charlotte was having dinner with Orimura or something after training all day...supposedly.

Well, it was really none of my business, so I chomped on my energy bar while walking towards R&D. However, once I arrived I found no one to greet me in the dark, spacious room. No one except a pair of wired knives flying past my head, so close that they cut huge slits down my shoulders causing hairline lacerations to appear. The razor thin slashes caused me a great deal of pain, like having two giant paper cuts on my shoulders. I was being attacked! I had to do something, but I knew it was still going to hurt.

I summoned my IS, falling to my knees in a pain I just could not get used to. Four more knives wrapped around my neck, torso and wrists; binding me in place while the other two retreated into the darkness. The wires tightened harshly onto their targets, the pain augmenting what I was already feeling. They pulled me forward into the room, my IS making a horrible scraping noise along the ground. The wires lifted me up into the air, and a soft hand penetrated the IS AD, holding my eye open with cold fingers. Laura's golden eye stared back at me in contempt, before the owner of that golden eye used the wires to throw me carelessly to the side. I rolled to a stop, greedily drinking in air as my wires were no longer choking me.

"As you can see, Bodewig," a familiar voice lectured, "Sever can't equip her IS without feeling an intense amount of pain, probably caused by the IS connecting to the implants inside her. Like you, she was part of an experiment where we modified her body to augment her IS. However, instead of enhanced reflexes like you, she has the ability to access her AR even without equipping her IS. There are some additional benefits, but you'll learn those on a need-to-know basis."

"Orimura-sensei..." I choked out.

"You've got two minutes to catch your breath," Orimura-sensei ordered, snapping her fingers to make the dim yellow lights turn on again. "As for you Bodewig, partial summoning drills. I want you to unequip and reequip as after every parry, understand?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Laura saluted, then took a ready stance as Orimura-sensei swung an IS katana at her, a telegraphed overhand chop. Laura summoned her IS's right arm, then used the beam saber to knock Orimura-sensei's light attack away. Instantly, Orimura-sensei used the momentum from the block to attack from below. Laura unequipped her right arm and equipped her left, once again batting away the strike with the other beam saber. The pattern continued, Orimura-sensei swinging the sword in ways I could never replicate while Laura kept switching arms to block. But near the end of the two minutes, I noticed that Orimura-sensei had been getting gradually faster and faster, stronger and stronger. This was evidenced by a increasing rate of failure as Laura started missing the blade, the katana hitting her IS part instead of the beam saber. In addition, each attack that properly connected started pushing her back more and more, Orimura-sensei stepping forward as needed to continue the assault. Then, at exactly two minutes, Sensei yelled her only battle cry of the night.

An otherworldly kiai echoed through the expansive room, chilling me to the bone and making me forget about the small amount of pain that still bothered me. That same kiai made Laura's knees go weak, collapsing her legs and making her fall hard onto her bottom. Orimura-sensei brought the katana down, making a sickening screech that resounded in my head. I covered my ears and curled my body into a fetal position as tight as possible to escape the high-pitched noise, finally looking out after I was sure it had stopped. Orimura-sensei was calmly walking away form the wall she had embedded the katana in. Underneath the still quivering blade, a shaking Laura weakly crawled out just to collapse on the ground and catch her breath.

"That's all the time you have for rest, girls," Sensei ordered, once again snapping her fingers, this time dimming the lights down to nothing. The only light came from the glowing purple trim of my IS and the open door. She stood in front of that door and explained, "We will be simulating a purely blind fight. You will fight in complete darkness and the match will end when one person's IS AD is depleted. Ready, start!" The door closed on us, and then I saw only myself glowing a faint purple light. The best defense is a good offense as I activated Aegis, swept Longshock to load it, then shot a dim green sphere towards where I last saw her. It lit up the nearby space as it moseyed towards the embedded sword, exploding when it reached the wall and loosening the blade so it fell out of its cut and leaned upright against the wall, but as expected Laura was not revealed during the projectile's travel. In the time it took me to do all that, she had moved without summoning her IS. I realized that Orimura-sensei had clued her in to what this battle was going to be like with that drill: without her IS giving away her position, she could use partial summons to attack me and then retreat while unequipping, with me not knowing where the next attack would come from

So if Laura got a hint, what about me? I was attacked out of the blue, then made to watch as Laura practiced. I didn't get a chance to think further than this as 6 dimly lit cords streaked towards me. They specifically aimed for my limbs and neck, almost getting them if I hadn't activated my Ignition Boost and advanced into their thicket faster than their controller could react. I followed the 6 dark lines of light back to their common point, the shoulder guards of Laura's Schwarzen Regen, now dimly lit with its own red trim. As I got close, another line of red trim appeared on Laura's right arm. I knew what was coming next, so I aimed the gun in my right hand at my next target.

AIC immobilized me in space, but I was now close enough for the green glow of my Aegis to light up Laura in her entirety. The only IS parts she had equipped were her right arm and her shoulder guards, including the rail gun. She repeated her favorite move, charging up the gun while the indicator on the side glowed, notifying us of the charge.

I won't survive this, why is she going to shoot the gun at full charge?

I can see the smile, she doesn't care about my life.

She's going berserk again, she's going to kill me. Where's Orimura-sensei? I can't see her. I'm going to die.

I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I DON'T WANNA DIE!

I shot Longshock at my target. The green ball patiently wandered at an aggravatingly slow pace as the rail gun charged to full power. The silver-haired girl smiled a wild and crazy smile, exactly like the last time we were like this, but this time I was in no position to activate Grand Aegis. We waited an eternity for our projectiles to finish their gambits, but I won my gamble. I smiled my own crazy smile, which caused Laura's widening grin to stop expanding. Then the explosion of air drew her focus behind her, and we watched as the sword that fell out of the gash in the wall earlier now flew wildly at Laura and I. To dodge it, she summoned her other arm and punched me away, then used her AIC to arrest the swords momentum. But that's all I need as I shot another Longshock pellet at the ground opposite her AIC. At such a close proximity to it's target, Laura had no time to react as the ball of air exploded, the weight of her equipped IS parts anchoring her to the ground but the wind picking up her naked legs. Unbalanced and vulnerable, I rushed in and grabbed the fully charged rail gun. I grabbed it in a bear hug, placing a heavy foot on the shoulder guard and pointing it at the ceiling. I tugged and tugged and finally ripped the gun out of its xtradimensional socket and lifted it high into the air.

I laughed maniacally, my eyes widening with gruesome cheer and battle lust. In my head, I screamed _Die Laura Die Laura Die Laura Die Laura Die Laura Die Laura Die Laura Die Laura Die Laura Die Laura DIE LAURA!_

And then... nothing. My arms swung limply down to my sides as my body stopped responding to me. No matter what I did I could not move a muscle. A new AIC? No, this was different; it felt familiar to the last vestige of sanity in my mind. I wrenched my neck this way and that wildly, howling a beastly roar from the most savage part of my soul. But no matter how much I thrashed, my body wouldn't move. I struggled against my new prison for an eternity, before finally calming down. I looked down and saw Laura struggling to catch her breath in the dim yellow light I never noticed reactivated. Standing protectively in front of her was a frowning Orimura sensei, twirling my orange pendant around her finger.

"This training is over!" she commanded. She waited for Laura to finish recovering and re-summon her IS completely before giving her the pendant. "Be careful and put this back onto her."

Laura obeyed the order with visible trepidation. I scowled and strained against the IS, a primal fear taking over my head that something is going to kill me and I CAN'T MOVE!

It took a step forward with it's claw-like fingers extended towards my neck, but something is going to kill me and I CAN'T MOVE!

Something is going to kill me and I CAN'T MOVE!

Something is going to kill me and I CAN'T MOVE!

KILL ME, CAN'T MOVE, KILL ME, CAN'T MOVE, KILL ME, CAN'T MOVE!

Something snapped inside of me. I couldn't think clearly but I knew once thing. More than anything else in the world, I needed to get out of the way of the force of death in front of me. But no amount of prayer in the world could get the IS to move. So I cried.

"NOOOOO!" I screamed. "NOOOOO! NOOOO! nooooo! nooo! no..."

I sobbed myself to sleep, not even the loud clanking of my IS falling onto the ground curbing my oncoming unconsciousness.

* * *

><p>I woke up, in a cold sweat...no, scratch that; I woke up cold and wet, Laura standing over me with an empty bucket. She looked down at me condescendingly, as if I had betrayed her expectations of strength. Orimura-sensei stood next to her, expressionlessly examining my fingerless gloves with an experienced eye. In the crook of her arm, she held a small display probably for inspecting the IS in its compact standby form.<p>

Then I caught a glimpse of a third person in the corner of my eye, even in the low light conditions of the expansive room. I turned my neck, the only muscle I could turn towards the new arrival. Dr. Nebata was sitting in a chair obscured by Orimura-sensei's body, furiously typing away at a blistering pace.

"What was that?" Laura exploded, "What happened to the girl that beat me the other night? What happened to the warrior that I gave my respect for? Are you mocking me?"

"No, Sever isn't a warrior, "Orimura-sensei declared, not even turning an eye to Laura's outburst. "If you're a soldier, than she's a gladiator. Rather than fighting for glory and pride like you do, whenever she puts on her IS it's a fight for survival. For her, it's kill or be killed, learn to fight or die like a dog. This girl has had a rough life, now even rougher now that she's taken offensive action against Phantom Task."

"I'm not sure about that," Dr. Nebata objected, not looking up from her screen but apparently paying attention as well. "Judging from what she's written in her reports coupled with the report you two just gave me, she reminds me more of a cornered animal than a gladiator. Put simply, her personality is more like a cat arching its back in an effort to look intimidating."

"How so?" Orimura-sensei questioned.

"Well, firstly I don't think her stories themselves are completely accurate, or maybe it would be better described as accurately complete. Take a look at this," the bespectacled doctor requested, motioning to Orimura-sensei. Laura stood where she was, still listening to the conversation but forming her own opinion on the matter. "Starting from the beginning it's a very amateurish start, like short stories in a normal school's literary journal. There's a lot of description and a lot of information setting up the background and setting of her experiences, but it's done in a fairly rigid manner. It's more that she's telling us about herself rather than letting us figure out what type of person she is. She doesn't let herself socialize either, almost like she's afraid of other people even though she's acting friendly. It actually seems like the literary representation of prey trying to make itself appear bigger than its predator.

"I'm not saying that she's actually unskilled or weak, but the way its presented its like she's bluntly describing the extents of her abilities to either bluff us into thinking she's strong or she's psyching herself up to act stronger than she really is. That's why the first three chapters are boring to read and her character seems really one-dimensional and uninteresting.

"But her style of writing becomes abruptly different after fighting with the black IS Noctores Gospel."

"Noctores Gospel?" Laura blurted out. "How do you know about the commander's AI's IS? That's supposed to be a top secret project!" she demanded belligerently.

Dr. Nebata raised a suspicious eyebrow at this declaration before resuming her furious typing pace.

"A while ago, she fought a black IS that she identified as Noctores Gospel," Orimura-sensei explained calmly. She had worked on one of it's subsystems before and recognized the finished IS, even determining its objectives before engaging it in combat. It was then that her IS finally underwent 1st shift and gained her Aegis one-off."

"Right," Dr. Nebata agreed distractedly. We waited a few seconds for Dr. Nebata to finish her frantic fiddling with her computer before she resumed, "the style of writing immediately changes to a very descriptive, action-filled sequence that dwarfs the first chapters in quality by far. This pattern of subpar casual life and exciting training and battles continues all the way into Chapter 8. Up to this point, it seems like the personality of a cold warrior attempting to fit into society: one that had only lived a life of fighting and could not quite get used to peace. However, one important piece of information changes this to a more somber revelation: the fact that she was kidnapped by Phantom Task.

"And this brings me to my second point: how complete it is. I don't think Sever is lying to us, after all we were here when she told us about her past, but that she left out certain important facts. Memories that I'm willing to bet were suppressed and the real reason why she wants to be Sever Panganiban."

She got up off her chair and walked over to me to place my pendant back onto my neck. Catching a signal from Orimura-sensei, Laura equipped her right arm, ready to use AIC at a moment's notice. The pendant magnetically adhered into place, and I could feel and move again. I raised my arm to show I was calm and in control of myself and sat cross-legged on the cold floor. Dr. Nebata bent down to my eye-level to speak to me seriously, a sad gaze in her eyes.

"Sever," she started out slowly, making sure I heard every word. "Phantom Task is a terrorist organization known for both illegal and deadly IS research. They're known for creating intricately complex long-term plans, and cold ruthless execution of every step of said plans. So what are the chances that some random person they ran across would be the best agent they would need for one of these plans?"

No, no, I was the only one right? There wasn't anyone else, just X right? Wait...

"Secondly, assuming X is a code name, wouldn't it stand to reason that there are agents with other letters? You may not know for sure, but this is completely true: we've verified the existence of at least ten including X," Orimura-sensei continued the explanation. "I'm sure that we can at least verify that fact with him if you like as he's still being watched in a secured infirmary room."

That was right. I never met them in person, but there were other people besides X who were agents of Phantom Task. But there was something missing, a way for me to identify the ones with powerful against the grunts like those runners who thwarted my attempted escapes so long ago...

"Third," Dr. Nebata took over, looking deep into my eyes at the swirl of memories starting to return, "Assuming that they did not rely on you being the only agent, that would mean they kidnapped people of similar age, build, and race to you for the express purpose of replacing Sever."

"Now, what ever happened to those other possible Sever replacements?" Orimura-sensei prodded.

What happened to them? That's right, that's how I knew who were grunts and who were agents: agents had a small filipino child with them. But, I don't remember ever meeting so many of them, just X and the grunts. Why do I remember other agents and children? Something more...

"Did you know that the human body records every injury it had ever sustained, be it physical, mental, or emotional?" Dr. Nebata asked, introducing a relevant fact to lead into he final conclusion. "In the case of physical injuries, if one looks closely enough one can see inconsistencies in the body tissues that signify damage, the severity of the inconsistency increasing with the extent of the injury. In the case of mental injuries, an MRI or CAT scan can analyze physical damage of your brain and infer what type and extent of mental injury you may have. And there's a whole field of study devoted to emotional injuries. And the records of _your_ body leads us to believe that the real reason of the 'shadow of death' in your eyes is not due to your guilt for killing the original Sever."

Don't say it, don't say it, don't say it! I don't want to remember. I don't need to remember! I'm Sever now. I'm a tall, Filipino girl and Nefer's sister.

"You see, an MRI revealed blunt trauma to your head, not enough to retard you but enough to cause damage to your senses."

I'm Sever now. I hate loud-high-pitched noises of all kinds, they give me such a headache. It's just the type of person I am, right? It's just a coincidence, right?

"You have multiple traces of deep lacerations in your chest and stomach area, probably almost fatal if not for your doctor. Whoever sewed you up did a really good job; after all these years the only evidence were mismatched layers of tissue deep in your chest, which were seen when we installed your AR implants."

I'm Sever now, if I did have any cuts like that, I'm sure it was either a bad slip-up while running away or scars from any punishment I received from trying to run away from X. But, I don't think he ever tried to kill me, ever.

"If you're supposed to be an agent of Phantom Task, there is no way that they would risk lethally harming you just for the sake of punishment. You had to do something dangerous, something that they would risk your life to fulfill. Something that almost killed you."

I almost died? I didn't almost die, I took a life! I took a life, and it's been weighing on my heart all this time! That's why I try so hard to live! Can't I be happy for her sake? For my mom's sake? For my mother's midwife's sake? Can't I try hard to make friends, cook good food, and have a good life for them to live through me? But...but...why do I feel it isn't enough?

"Do you want to tell us what happened? Or should we tell you?" Orimura-sensei offered, outright telling me they knew what I had suppressed.

"I...I...don't know exactly. But I don't think you should tell me what I'm not remembering. I think, I think this is something I need to remember on my own. I feel like this is something important I have to do, and it's something I shouldn't accept help with."

I don't know what came over me, but this nagging feeling deep in the pit of my stomach restrained the word "help" from coming out of my mouth. The memory of...something was on the tip of my mouth. I just needed to remember.

"...That's fine," Orimura-sensei accepted my answer. "However, you need to leave your IS with us and decline IS training until further notice. Right now, the only thing we know for sure is that something about Deep Purple awakens your berserker side. It doesn't seem to manifest when using a mass-produced IS, but we won't take any chances. Your excuse will be an injured hand."

"Won't that be a bit weak for an excuse? I mean, the last time I did this, the excuse was that I had injuries after taking out an IS for a joyride. Compared to that, anything less would be kinda suspicious, right?" I attempted to joke, trying to come up with a way to end this discussion on a lighter note.

"True, then Bodewig," Orimura-sensei called to the patiently waiting German, "Would you please break some of Sever's bones?"

"Yes, Instructor," Laura saluted, then began cracking her knuckles in anticipation.

I sprung up off the floor and started making my way to the door. "Ow! Ow, ow, ow! Oh, my hand! It hurts so bad, I must've sprained it or something! It looks like I won't be able to pilot IS for awhile!" I complained, cradling my left hand as I reached the door.

"You need to work on your acting skills, Sever-san," Dr. Nebata giggled, finally shifting out of her serious mode and into the cheerful personality she had when I first met her. It was definitely a welcome change from the heavy mood I had sensed from her earlier.

Emboldened by the positive reaction from her, I continued, "Sorry, I'm just wasn't really ready for Orimura-sensei to make a joke like that."

"Whatever do you mean?" Dr. Nebata smiled an innocent and childish smile. "Chi-chan doesn't make jokes."

My attention switched from Dr. Nebata to Orimura-sensei, who nodded to Laura. Laura summoned her IS and advanced toward me menacingly. I quickly vacated the room, running as quickly as possible while still holding my "sprained" hand.

* * *

><p>The rest of the week passed by without incident. Without the training I usually did, I found myself regressing back to the pattern of the days early in the year, before I gained my personal IS. I went to class, attempted to read ahead (but now the lecture was so advanced that I actually needed the extra reading to fully comprehend the lesson), going to cooking club (but only to assist others since I needed two hands to cook), then coming back to the Dorm. The other change to this routine was Nefer, who seemed to not get better nor worse. I worried it was something serious, but eventually the doctor came to take a look at her and told us it was just a stomach flu. He invited Nefer to stay in the infirmary where a nurse could take care of her, but she refused. So I spent most of my time taking care of her, reminding me of even earlier days then the beginning of the year.<p>

However, there was a problem: I could not remember what memory I suppressed. I racked my brain for those few days, but somehow whenever I got on the verge of remembering it, Nefer would start acting up or coughing and I would be sufficiently distracted to completely lose my train of thought and start from scratch all over again. Coupled with the homework and the fact that some part of me really didn't want to remember, I had begun to think this was a lost cause. I really wanted to ask Orimura-sensei and Dr. Nebata what they knew, but every time that thought came up, yet another part of me screamed that I had to do it myself.

The day before Sunday, our vacation day, Orimura-sensei announced that during the next week, we would be having class at the beach. We would be leaving in the morning on Monday and stay there until Saturday. I remember that day well, because the squeal from the girls was so loud that I temporarily forgot about my "sprained" hand, bringing it up to my ears reflexively. Luckily, I was in the back, so no one noticed, but Orimura-sensei gave me a death glare so bad I got lumps in my throat.

On Sunday, I woke up bright and early. If I was going to the beach, I would need to take care of some errands first. Nefer was still asleep, so I gently felt her forehead. She felt a bit cooler than usual, but I didn't want to take any chances, I decided to let her rest a little more. I would really like it if Nefer was able to go with us to the beach, but she'd only be able to do that if she gets better. A good breakfast would help with that, so I crept silently out of the room. As I left, I met Houki about to enter Orimura's room in full kendo gear.

"Good morning," I greeted the kendo practitioner.

"Oh, Sever-san, good morning," she returned, removing the guards to be able to converse a little easier.

"I see you practice on Sundays as well as after school, Houki-san."

"Mmm, I find it helps keep my skills polished. Do you go running a lot as well?"

I looked down at my clothes, black track pants and a white sleeveless tee, which doubled as my sleeping clothes for summer. I could see how people might think that what functioned as my pajamas would be for running, but now that she mentioned it, I felt a sudden urge to go. Maybe it might clear my head a bit and help me remember that memory.

"I haven't been able to for a while, but I think now is a good time to start. So why are you here at Orimura's room?"

"We practice kendo together on Sunday mornings before breakfast. It builds up an appetite fairly well."

"So you spar with him a lot then?"

"Right, since we both practice kendo, it's easy for us to help each other improve. These skills will transfer over well to his IS."

"Well, how about your skills? I think the only time I've seen you fight in an IS was in the tag-team tournament, but Laura didn't exactly give you a chance to show them off."

"We'll see..." she trailed off suspiciously. Something about that statement seemed to scream "don't ask", so I changed the subject.

"Would you mind sparring with me sometime?" I requested, thinking back to the time I copied Orimura's katana in training so long ago. Upon actually trying to use it, I found that using weapons like that was incredibly awkward and not something that fitted my personality. However, it was still a tool I could use, so if I could at least be able to move it properly it would be a big benefit for future battles.

"Isn't your wrist still sprained?" Houki pointed out, paying attention to my bandaged hand.

"I'm sure if you could just show me forms or simple strikes, I could practice on my own. How much is a shinai anyways?"

"Not too much, but a nice one will be expensive. As for the practice, Ichika and I do a more...intensive training that I wouldn't ask you to do while injured."

"Full contact or light touch?"

"Light touch to warm up, but we'll finish off the training with full contact matches."

"Good, I should be fine then."

A confused look appeared on Houki's face, necessitating further explanation on my part.

"I may not know how to use a sword, but I know how to use my body. I flexed a lanky arm, exposing the small but tight sinews my build allowed me to have. Let me put on some armor and figure out a good way to move with it and I should be fine for active sparring. Just avoid my left hand, ok?"

"Alright," she agreed warily, "but make sure you pad that area just in case, ok? Here's my phone number, give me a call when you want to practice."

"Sounds good," recording her numbers into my phone and giving her a call. She held up the phone showing she received my number and we parted ways.

"It's me, Ichika! Let's get morning practice going!" she called, the yell fading behind me as I briskly walked to the cafeteria.

I had made it all the way to the door of the cafeteria, when I noticed Charlotte peek out of her new room.

"Good morning, Charlotte. I'm about to make some porridge, want to help?" I offered the newbie a chance to learn something new.

She yawned sleepily, "Sure, let me just wake up a little more. By the way, have you seen Laura?"

"Wait a minute, Houki, this is a misunderstanding!" a scared voice echoed down the hall.

"This isn't good," I muttered, spinning on my heel and sprinting back to my room.

I made it to the door just as Houki prepared a devastating downward smash at Orimura's head, precariously perched at the side of his bed. I lunged at the blade held awkwardly in Houki's grip and managed to turn what was surely a killing strike into a glancing blow, the shinai making an audible cracking echo as it struck his forehead obliquely. His scream echoed throughout the dormitory, giving us a few seconds to prepare for the inevitable stampede of curious girls. Luckily, Charlotte arrived at just the right instant to witness the last few moments.

"Charlotte, damage control. Make sure the girls don't swarm the room, I gotta check Orimura's injury," I ordered. At this point, I realized just how assertive I become when administering first aid. I guess those lessons took better to me than I thought.

"Right," she agreed and exited the room, blocking it with her body and attempting to yell over the excited girls.

Meanwhile, I checked over Orimura while Houki cooled down in a nearby chair. Seriously, the guy was a monster: except for a light bruise he didn't even look injured. Instead, he seemed to have fainted from shock and fear.

"What did you do to this guy?" I asked Houki incredulously, focusing on the bruise and making sure that his skull wasn't damaged. "What happened to make you attack him?"

"Look up," she answered through gritted teeth.

I did so and was met with a pair of pale, slender legs wrapped around Orimura's torso. I followed the legs along the owner's body, wrapped around Orimura's right arm, and eventually arrived at Laura's sleepy-looking face.

"Aah, I see the problem," smothering as much shock as I could under a cool exterior. It wouldn't do for me to panic as well. The chattering outside had stopped, and Charlotte entered the room breathless and tired. "Charlotte," I began in what I hoped was a steady voice, "Could you please find Laura some clothes?"

After catching her breath, Charlotte opened her eyes and looked up, immediately turning red at the sight of a totally naked Laura holding Orimura in an arm lock, his elbow dangerously close to...her navel, probably.

She immediately ran out of the room and returned with lightening speed, handing out Laura's uniform to the nude girl and stammering, "P-p-please p-p-put this on!"

I nodded to the German girl, who stared at the uniform before her eyes suddenly snapped back into focus. She released her embrace of Orimura's arm and charged into the bathroom like a whirlwind. Charlotte obligingly entered after her to help calm her down and help her dress. I left to grab the first aid kit we had acquired for the kitchen and used it to treat Orimura's bruise. Then I had a thought, and compared my skin to Orimura's. As I did this, Laura and Charlotte exited the bathroom and took a seat on the bed near Orimura while Houki gave her an evil eye. Sensing the impending doom, Charlotte pushed Laura to the opposite end. I gave the French girl a grateful nod while she responded with a patient smile.

"Be right back," I announced to the group as I left then returned with a certain tub of skin crème. Scraping the bottom of the now almost empty cup, I laid the crème on top of the bruise. Luckily, the skin color was close enough that it effectively covered up the bruise, Orimura's bangs obscuring it even more.

"Alright, finished," I said, packing up the loose supplies and getting ready to leave. "Hmmm, Charlotte, do you mind watching over this guy? If he feels dizzy or starts seeing double, he might have a concussion so bring him to the infirmary."

The girl saluted and sat next to Orimura, taking a great deal of effort to move him into a more comfortable position.

"Laura," I continued, "it's probably best that you give Orimura some time to cool off. Come back in a couple of hours, I'm sure he'll have...calmed down quite a bit from your provocative display." The girl blushed darkly and left the room without further argument.

"Houki, come with me. It's probably not best for you to be here right now."

"What? I have a responsibility to help Ichika recover! I should stay here too!" she objected vehemently.

"You're the main cause of his injury," I gently reminded her. "He isn't hurt too bad, but if I didn't grab your shinai he would've been seriously injured or even dead. I'm pretty sure the guy fainted from realizing that, so if he saw you again he may relapse back into unconsciousness. Especially as you still have on your kendo outfit."

"Yeah, but..." she desperately searched for an excuse to stay.

"Look at it this way, since my assistant is currently occupied with nursing duty," I jerked my head at a waving Charlotte, "I need some help making some breakfast. Since you owe me for helping Orimura, you should repay me right now. Now, come on." I dragged the weakly resisting girl to the kitchen, stopping only to recover her gear she left outside of Orimura's dorm.

"I'm making some rice porridge. You mind julienning up some ginger and celery? I figure those would go well into it. Ooh, some saffron and green onions too. Enough for six."

"...Fine," she sighed, then dutifully went to grab the ingredients I specified while I boiled some rice in milk. As she cut, I went about gathering spices to season the dish.

"Who's going to be eating this?" Houki asked, cutting the vegetables into the small pieces I requested.

"Isn't it obvious?" I answered. "You, me, Orimura, Charlotte, Nefer, and the girl hiding behind the door over there."

"Hmm?"

In response, I thumbed backward at the door. Houki gasped with recognition as the German girl entered the room, keeping her distance from Houki.

"Hmm, she looks like she's in dere-dere mode," I muttered to myself, taking the cut up ingredients and pouring them into the pot.

"What's that?" the terminology confusing Houki.

"Don't worry about it, it just means Laura's still shocked by her actions today." I seasoned the meal to taste, then pulled my attention over to the new arrival.

I called out to the girl, "Want to taste test?" holding out a spoonful of the porridge temptingly.

The girl shyly nodded, once again emitting the air of an innocent young girl. A side of her that could only be coaxed out by food and Orimura.

"Alright, then we need to set some ground rules between you two," I demanded. "I don't want this to be a daily occurrence, sometimes I'd like to not have to work so hard in the morning. Laura, I want you to not do things like that and embarrass Orimura. It may be amusing, but Orimura has this odd ability to have someone come in at just the wrong moment and overreact. And on that topic, Houki, if you're going to overreact, try to keep the volume and the injuries down to a minimum please? I'd rather not deal with this."

Laura nodded eagerly, receiving her reward of rice porridge and greedily slurping down the large portion. Well, looks like that demand was no skin off her back, but Houki looked like she was about to explode.

"What do you mean _over_react?" she screeched, standing on her tip-toes.

"Fine, then just don't _react_ like you did just now. I really don't think Orimura would appreciate that."

"W-why does he need to appreciate that?" she stammered, evading eye contact with me.

"Ugh, you've got it just as bad as her, huh?"

"What?" Distracted by the aside, she gave me an inquisitive gaze.

"We'll talk later. I've got someone waiting for this. Laura, clean up, ok?"

The girl nodded and finished her bowl. She dutifully carried it and all the equipment we used to be washed properly while I handed Houki a stack of bowls and spoons. I led her to Orimura's room where we served Charlotte and the still unconscious Orimura their own bowls. Upon tasting her bowl, Charlotte's eyes shined as she begged me for the recipe. I rattled off the list of ingredients we used as well as a very simple set of directions, then had Houki assist me in carrying them to my dorm. Nefer was already awake, but quailed under her bedsheets as she saw Houki enter behind me.

"Nefer, come out of there. Breakfast will get cold," I admonished the painfully shy girl.

Reluctantly, the girl lowered the sheets, but still did not drop her guard against the other girl.

"Look, she's not going to hurt you. You don't have a naked German clinging to your arm," I said dryly, earning me an angry glance from Houki. "Here, I made you breakfast. See if you can keep this down."

"She's been sick, right?" Houki confirmed, watching as I carefully handed Nefer her meal.

"Yeah, Doctor says it's stomach flu, so she's been having a hard time keeping solid food down. I've been feeding her things like this for the past week, but every so often she'd throw it back up."

"Well sorry for being sick, Ate," Nefer apologized sarcastically. She had a hurt look on her face, a signal I took it too far.

"Hey, don't be like that, I was only joking," I placated the insulted teenager. I gave her a tight embrace and told her sternly, "You are my beloved little sister. Nothing will ever change that." As I released her, Nefer took the first chance she got to quickly brush a tear from her eyes, before giving me a grateful smile.

I glanced at Houki and saw she had a really uncomfortable look on her face. Realizing that our familiar affections might be a bit embarrassing with a guest in the room, I suggested we quickly finish our food and head to our respective morning activities. After stopping by Orimura's to ask Charlotte to take care of our dishes, we picked up her gear in the kitchen and walked together to the kendo clubroom. After bidding her goodbye, I left to do my own thing.

"Whatever happened to 'your own thing'?" Houki demanded, hand on her hips and glaring. As for me, I was currently going through the equipment room, looking for extra gear I could borrow for a bit.

"Well, I noticed that there was no one else here, so I decided to practice with you. After all, your sparring partner is kinda unconscious right now," I noted, pulling on various articles of clothing and checking the fit.

Without a rebuttal, Houki started practice swings while I took all of five minutes to find gear that fit me well. After helping me put them on and adjusting them, Houki handed me a shinai and took a ready stance, the same one I saw Orimura-sensei took. Even the look in her eyes was the same...no... it was a more intense gaze. One that was filled with both pride in herself and growth for the future, a spark of life that hungered for glory.

"Put your offhand on top of your dominant hand and mimic my stance," the girl instructed with the confidence of experience years of practice imbued her with. Entranced by her eyes, I took the same position, noting how strong this grip felt. My muscles tensed with anticipation as she lifted her shinai up over her head.

"Hold the sword up in front of your face horizontally. Relax your legs and try to absorb the impact from this overhead blow." Again, her confident eyes drove me to follow her orders immediately. I raised the blade and tensed my muscles. I shifted my right leg back to help absorb the incoming attack. Houki charged forward, clearing the two meters between us in small, quick steps before swinging her sword.

"Head!" She yelled, smashing down on my defense with all she had. I caught the attack with a supple body, the feeling of receiving the blow almost natural, even familiar. I remembered something similar, except it wasn't with a sword and it wasn't as successful.

But, I didn't have time to dwell upon it for Houki recovered from the block and swung at my side. My instincts took over and I leapt backwards, the tip of the shinai scraping the tangent of the rounded torso guard.

"Hmm, good instincts," she noted, once again taking a ready position. "Alright, now do what I did, take a few practice swings first, then attack me the same way." As she suggested, I swung a couple of downward chops, before taking wide strides to clear the distance between us. With the height difference, I should be able to impart even greater strength than she could on me, although she was much stronger than I was. With all my weight behind it, I smashed downward at the girl. In the next instant, I found myself pushed back and off balance as Houki aimed a return strike at my chest. With all the strength I could muster, I swung the shinai with my right hand, catching Houki's and making it veer off course into the floor between us. However with my now-weakened grip coupled with Houki's stronger slash, the shinai tumbled out of my hands and across the floor. I fell on my back, then quickly threw my legs behind me in a reverse hand spring to land me on my feet quickly and gain even more distance. The armor dug into my waist as I attempted the stunt, but I endured the pain, trivial compared to equipping Deep Purple.

Now weaponless, I took the fighting stance Yamada-sensei taught me, putting my left offhand in front of me and standing askew of my opponent. I used my right hand to loosen and remove the chest guard and little skirt thing; now the only thing protecting me was my head, face, and hand guards.

I jumped from side to side, experimentally determining my extent of movement with my current gear. I don't think I'll be able to kick well in these pants, but my hands should be just as fast as in practice. When Orimura-sensei revoked my IS privileges, I continued learning hand-to-hand combat from Yamada-sensei whenever we had free time. Just like Houki and her kendo, I could still work on my training even without an IS. Except for my "sprained" left hand, of course.

I stared into Houki's eyes, issuing a challenge she readily accepted. She charged again, using those small steps. But I had already seen this, I had a good gauge of her speed and range now. But why was this also so familiar? I remembered a blue blur, the same movement as Houki's. Moving fast..no..even faster than I thought. The stab I got made every breath, every beat of the heart a painful chore. I held the knife in my hand, a fruitless effort against his superior speed. I clutched a balled fist to the wound near my heart to stop the bleeding...

I rubbed the...wound? The knife was...gone? He was a...girl? No, it doesn't matter. She's coming! I...need to do something!

I matched her pace at the very end of her charge with a my own charge, surprisingly much faster than hers. Even as she was swinging, my body was no longer where she thought it was. Her arms crashed against my shoulder as I charged into her torso with my arm guards up. The sudden change in momentum wrested the shinai from Houki's grip as we both tumbled to the ground. I grabbed the collar of Houki's shirt and attempted to maintain the tumble until I could come up on top. We rolled across the room before I finally locked a leg and stopped our rolling in the position I wanted. I quickly locked my legs around her stomach, not letting go and drew back my fist. Another familiar scenario, are these the memories I needed? I remembered being in this position as well, but instead of being on top, I was being mounted. I grabbed a nearby weapon and swung it at my opponent's neck as my opponent brought down a double-handed hammer.

An unconscious reaction caused me to tense my neck and abandon my position by rolling off. Not a moment too late, a shinai slashed through the space my neck was a little while ago. I landed flat on my back and panting hard, staring at Houki who appeared similarly drained as she also struggle to recover her breath. Just like before, I attempted to control my breathing by inhaling with my diaphragm. It did work effectively, but the cool wooden floor of the kendo room unwound my tensed, overstressed body. More than anything I have ever done before, this spar pushed my body, my mind, and my instincts to the test. But more importantly, I remembered what I need to remember.

"Am I so weak?" A surprising question came from the other girl.

"...Not in the slightest. I got lucky with the roll." It was a small half-truth, if she realized I would be going for a follow-up, she would be able to stop the roll much easier with her greater strength.

"No, I...aimed for your neck," she winced, a familiar tone creeping into her voice.

"...You did..." I agreed, but I quickly continued, "but it might have been necessary."

"What do you mean?"

"I...tried to kill you too. I got lost in the battle, and somehow I remembered something horrible. I..."

"...You and I have had some hard times, haven't we?"

_You don't know the half of it,_ I thought bitterly, the recovered memory burning a hole into my mind. "I think if someone is trying to kill you, you need to kill them first."

"...That's a cold-blooded thing to say. What kind of life have you lived to make you think something like that is ok?"

"...A weak life, one where I'm not strong enough to find a way to allow both of us to live."

I got up off the floor and removed my equipment.

"Where are you going?" Houki asked, finally gathering herself off of the ground.

"..I need to talk to Orimura-sensei. I need to ask about something and it's very important. I don't want to forget this, not right now. I hate leaving you like this, but I swear I'll make it up to you."

I left without waiting for a response, sprinting towards the main school as fast as my tired body could take me.

* * *

><p>I took a few breaths to steady outside the building before entering and briskly walking towards Orimura-sensei's office. "I remember now!" I announced with a heavy heart, throwing open the door with more strength than I thought I used. The door slammed against the stop and quivered in space.<p>

"Well, that's timely," she remarked, completely ignoring the interruption, "we were just discussing the results we found when she did a deeper analysis of you and your IS." She motioned over to Dr. Nebata, still wearing her white lab coat and eyeglasses. "You go first."

"Ok, I remember completely now, the other things I've been doing as a member of Phantom Task," I growled out. Anger at myself soaked my next words with guilt, "I don't know how I could forget, but I'm not just a replacement for Sever, but I'm also an assassin. And not just any assassin, but the best. And I honed my skills by killing the other candidates for Sever's replacements. I started training since I was three, learning basic movements and instilling fighting instincts within me.

"When I was 6, I killed my first person ever. Another man brought a young boy with very feminine features to the room X and I were staying in while I was cutting vegetables. Upon seeing me, he charged me with a clumsy sword style, but he was fast. I couldn't react to him quickly enough and suffered a stab wound from that initial charge, but I finally took him out by learning his speed and stepping into his attack. His...arms smashed my neck, but the knife I had was embedded into his chest by his own momentum. I was stitched together to close the wound, but I remember them injecting nano-machines to assist with the internal injury.

"When I was 7, I performed my second kill. I was brought into a new area, a junkyard. In hindsight, I guess they wanted a fight on neutral grounds. The second child was definitely a girl, her voice was high and flighty, but her spear was sharp. I remember thinking 'What were we doing here?' before she suddenly attacked me. I...couldn't react in time as she plunged the spear into my stomach. Since I didn't know I was going to fight, I was unarmed, so I scrambled for anything to use as a weapon, finally finding a bent pipe to use. I balled my left fist and shoved it into my gut to stop the bleeding, then parried an overhead smash from my opponent. The weapon was knocked from my hand, but I had the ground advantage. I pushed against the ground with my feet, plowing into my opponent and sending her flying into a pile of junk. She was skewered by a stray spur, and died. As before, I was stitched to close the wound and let the nano-machines take care of the internals.

"When I was 8, I met my third opponent, a girl with a large, heavier body. I..didn't know I was going to fight her too, so I was completely taken by surprise when she tackled me and started slamming my head into the ground. I couldn't think clearly for a while, so I kicked. I kicked, and I kicked, and I kicked, and the next thing I knew my head was ringing, but the large girl was dead, a bloody pool emerging from her waist. I remember that the doctor didn't feel confident in risking brain surgery, so after checking my vitals he decided not to try to recover that damage.

"And then, when I was 9, I killed Sever. But I don't understand, why did I forget everyone else? How could I just forget that I killed so many people?" I buried my face in my hands, using pressure to stop the tears from coming out.

"I can explain that," Orimura-sensei offered gently. "It's your personality. Judging from your reactions , it's safe to say you don't want to kill anybody. However, they noticed that you're surprisingly good at it. So I believe that you've been hypnotized to forget about your ability to fight. I bet the trigger to unlock the hypnotism is fear for your life, and that fear manifests your fighting ability as a berserker rage. Basically, you're a cornered animal that can be unleashed at anytime."

"It's an outlandish theory I'm sure, but it fits with our observations" Dr. Nebata followed, "The only times you get violent are when you start feeling afraid for your life. When training, you are under supervision, but in one-on-one confrontations without our supervision and you feel that your life is threatened, your battle proficiency rises and culminates in termination of your target by whatever means possible. We read about it in your fight with Bodewig-san, and we saw it for ourselves in your second fight with her. If Chi-chan didn't stop you, you may have killed her."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Orimura-sensei flinch when she used that nickname, but I didn't want to dwell on that. "So, does that mean that I'm some kind of human remote bomb? Some kind of weapon to use at anytime?"

"At the very least, it means your emotions are unstable," Orimura-sensei clarified. "You've been through too much for us to have confidence in your sanity. We're afraid that if you aren't under constant supervision, you may lash out at other students and hurt them, even if it was by accident. We'll be holding onto your IS a little while longer. We'd like you to visit a psychologist, a proper one instead of Dr. Nebata over her."

"You're not a psychologist?" I questioned the lab-coat wearing lady.

"No, just really smart," she grinned, sticking out her tongue miming a blow to the back of her head. Why does that work for her but not me? She looks way more mature than I do with those glasses on, yet it looks almost natural for her. She adopted a more serious look before continuing, "However, you brought up an interesting topic. We never even considered the idea you might have nano-machines too, so we need to do a good amount more research some of our other findings, but one thing's for sure: you are a dangerous existence right now to our students. If you slip back into that mentality, that berserker rage when we cant intervene, you could seriously hurt someone."

"And that could be what Phantom Task wants," Orimura-sensei concluded. "You are not allowed to sit out the beach trip that's coming up for whatever reason. Do you understand?"

I heaved a great sigh.

"What's wrong?" Orimura-sensei demanded.

"I...I understand what you mean." The two women stared at me, beckoning for me to continue. "I was fighting with Houki just now." All of a sudden, Dr. Nebata jumped onto her seat and shouted "What? With Houki-chan?"

"Calm down!" Orimura-sensei barked, the order filled with authority echoing in the small room. "Continue, Sever," she ordered, keeping an eye on Dr. Nebata.

"I had asked her to teach me some moves, she did so through sparring. Eventually, she knocked the shinai out of my hand, but I wanted to continue. But during our spar, I started remembering bits and pieces of the first kills I made. And then, when I fully remembered them all, I was on top of Houki, ready to smash her face in with my guards."

"But, I didn't," I continued quickly, Dr. Nebata's nostrils flaring with anger. "She stopped me, and then I came straight here."

"I'll need to work harder," Dr. Nebata muttered, leaving the room in a rush.

"What's wrong with her?" I asked Orimura-sensei.

"The bigger problem is our excuse for you not piloting IS," she pointed out, changing the topic of discussion bluntly. I accepted the distraction as it seriously unnerved me to see Dr. Nebata act so angry all of a sudden. "For now, since there won't be any IS practicals at the beach, we'll be fine, but we'll need to resolve this before the end of the trip, understand?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Dismissed."

* * *

><p>Dwelling on my new memories, I wandered aimlessly throughout the campus, trying to recollect exactly what happened in the fights between me and those three kids. I knew that there really wasn't anything I could do more for them, but at least I could honor their lives by remembering as much as I could about them. But all I could recollect were the few decisive moments in our fights and some basic physical features. Eventually night fell, and I returned to the dorm disappointed in myself for not being able to remember those three.<p>

"Evening, Nefer," I greeted the girl who had stayed in my bed ever since the day she became sick. I placed my hand on her forehead to check her temperature, noting it was still warmer than I thought it should be, so I grabbed a thermometer from our medicine cabinet. "You feeling better? The fever's still there, 38°C, but how do you feel?"

"Mmmmm, are you sure?" she yawned. "I still feel kinda warm." She put her own hand on her forehead, rubbing it expectantly.

I sighed and touched my forehead to hers. The first time I tried it was an impulsive act I wanted to mimic from numerous anime I saw, but I quickly realized that it was a woefully inaccurate method of measuring temperature. After appropriating a real thermometer from the infirmary, I've been checking Nefer's temperature with it, however Nefer always insisted that I keep doing it regardless of the accuracy.

"Geez, that's an uncomfortable position," I complained, stretching out my back and making an audible crick.

"Sorry," she apologized but not looking sorry at all, "but that does make me feel a lot better. Thank you," she smiled.

Ugh, I can't win against that. "No problem. You going to be able to go on the beach class coming up?" I inquired, changing the subject and holding up the bathing suit I would bring on the trip.

"There's a field trip coming up?" she questioned back, a disappointed tone creeping into her voice.

"Yes, I found out on Friday. Didn't I mention it?"

"No, you didn't, but I don't think I'll be well enough to go."

"Oh, well If you need me, I'll only be a couple of hours away." Luckily, the beach was barely within range of my pendant to not have to rely on my 24-hour reserve. I could stay there as long as I wanted before my pendant ran out of energy, although the use of the AR itself would be severely diminished due to this distance.

"Wait, you're still going? But, I'll be lonely..and sick...and I'll need you," she blubbered with large, sad puppy-dog eyes. But unfortunately I had no choice in the matter.

I sat down next to the girl with the quivering lip and explained, "Orimura-sensei specifically said that I was required to go. I'm really sorry, but I don't really have a choice." _You see, I'm a dangerous person, and I really shouldn't be at your side. I'm a terrible murderer and a danger to you and everyone else. They need to protect everyone from me, _I admitted in my head, wanting tell her the truth but afraid of her reaction.

"But that's so weird, Ate, whenever I was sick and needed you before, you were always so quick at canceling study sessions so that you could take care of me. Why are you just meekly following your teacher's orders now?" she reasoned, still trying to make me stay with her.

I paused for a moment to think of I what I was going to say, then I began, "Didn't you tell me you wanted to be treated like an equal now? Like an adult instead of a kid? Like a person instead of a patient, or something like that? We may not have had our fight yet, but that's no reason for you to not try to act like an adult. Look, I'm glad you rely on me, but there are some things I have to do. Your stomach flu doesn't seem to keep you bed-bound, so you should be able to take care of yourself for at least a couple of days. If you really need me that bad, just give me a call and I'll come back to you, ok?"

The look on her face, even though she was sick, told me I won that battle. Her desire to be recognized by me had overrode her desire to be pampered by me, but that desire wouldn't give up without a fight. "Then...Then I want you to sleep with me, like you used to whenever I was sick."

"...What?"

"...I know it's weird, but I really want to do this with you. It's just...I want a final childish request before I prove to you I can be mature, ok?"

"...Fine," I accepted begrudgingly, "Just don't start tossing and turning in bed, ok? These beds are very narrow." I took a few minutes to pack up the clothes I would need in a duffel bag and a backpack, then changed into a similar but clean to go to sleep. I wedged myself into the small bed with Nefer, our bodies almost falling off the narrow area. She burrowed herself into my chest and fell asleep promptly. I felt like it wouldn't be quite so easy to fall asleep myself, but something warm and familiar about this position lulled me into a dreamless doze.

The next day, I woke with Nefer wrapped around my body like an ill-fitting sweater. I have no idea how she managed it, but she was able to wedge her arm and leg under me and press her body close to mine. I tried to get up, but the added weight and the awkward position effectively restrained me immobile.

"Nefer, wake up! I need to get ready for the trip!" I whispered loudly, not wanting to startle her.

"No," she said with alarming lucidity. She was always bad at getting up in the morning and even worse when sick. Why is she up? I touched her forehead with mine as that was the only way to check her temperature. With the practice I had gotten all last week, I knew that she had actually gotten worse since yesterday. Her forehead was notably hotter and her face was flushed more than I had ever seen.

"No," she repeated more forcefully, holding me tighter to her and pressing her breasts into my flat chest. Forced into this proximity, I noticed exactly how big her breasts really were, but that's beside the point!

"Let me go," I ordered my little sister.

"No," she refused for the third time. "I'm not letting you go! You won't leave me, not like this! I want let you!" She squeezed tighter and tighter, I had to fight for every breath. Then, I saw my escape.

My forehead was right above the soft part of her head. It'll hurt a bit, but I bet I can shock her into letting go for the slightest moment. Then I can escape.

I reared back my head, but was surprised when a tiny hand impeded my attack.

"You can't do that," the malevolent cheater admonished me, a surprisingly out of character moment for him.

"Why not?" I asked the guy, time slowing down around me once again.

"Look at who you're planning on headbutting! It's Nefer, your little sister. Your sick, little, sick, medicated, sick, beloved, _sick_, sister. Did I mention she's _sick_? She probably just doesn't know what she's talking about and is delirious."

"But it's almost time to leave! What can I do?" I implored the demonic imp.

"You still haven't realized? Look, just get ready. When time starts again, just be ready to make your escape."

Time flowed as the malevolent cheater held back my head with more strength than I thought possible. Than, all of a sudden, Nefer released me and pushed me off the side of the bed. I heard a door slam; I deduced it came from the bathroom. I got up from the crevice between the bed and the wall and circled the bed to hook my arm in the straps of my bags. I knocked on the door to the bathroom and said, "Nefer, I'll see you in a week or so." Her return was an anguished roar of despair that reverberated with the door. I'm sure the echo was even worse. I picked up my jika-tabi I left by the door and sprinted outside.

"Just like clockwork. Every morning, she wakes up and uses the bathroom like that. Well, minus the roar, that's a new one," the malevolent cheater explained as I cut through lawns and vaulted bushes trying to make it in time.

"Well, thank you for being so attentive. I've been busy with school, thank you very much," I retorted sarcastically.

"Look, that was seriously dangerous there," he took on a more serious tone. "I don't know what happened, but you're a lot more on edge. Keep better control over yourself."

"I know," I whined. "But, something was different. I can't put my finger on it, but something just made me panic. I mean, I know I wasn't afraid, but I felt desperate to get out of her arms. Ugh, it's just much too weird."

"Well, be careful but trust in Orimura-sensei. I sense outside forces at work here."

I stopped in my tracks at this. I know I lost time, but I couldn't let this slide. "Really? Did you just say that?"

He shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Yeah, always wanted to, too. Now get going!"

I sprinted again for the monorail, barely able to make it in with the rest of the class before the departure time.

A whole bunch of girls wearing uniforms and first-year ribbons stared at me, still in my sleeping clothes and barefoot, with a duffel bag swung on my shoulder. Sheepishly, I bowed my head and explained, "I had a rough morning."

Immediately, the gossip-loving girls surrounded me, asking questions that overlapped each other at a pace I couldn't follow. Luckily, a certain person saved me by calling out, "Ok, everyone, she's obviously very tired. Let's give her some rest."

"Houki..."

"Yeah, come on, we made space for you to rest."

She led me to a corner where Houki, Cecilia, and Orimura had clustered. Apparently, they had all gotten retreated to the area not full of boy-crazy girls. And a very small one at that. Rin, Charlotte, and Laura were no where to be seen, probably in another area of the car, but I had no doubt they were searching for the lone man here. Well, I was a very conspicuous landmark if they needed to find us. As we approached, I overheard Orimura saying "Ok, I promise."

When I got a good look at them, I noticed Cecilia had a satisfied look on her face while Orimura was holding his head in his hand.

"You're not doing too good either, ain't you, Orimura?" we exchanged weak smiles, although his looked weak from fatigue rather than stress.

"I overslept," Orimura yawned. "Cecilia was kind enough to wake me up and get me here on time where we met Houki. After that, I've been drifting in and out of sleep."

"Geez, what happened to you to get like this?" Houki asked.

"We were caught by Orimura-sensei," Charlotte grumbled, joining the circle with Rin and Laura and wearing a haggard face similar to Orimura's.

"Caught doing what?" Houki raised an eyebrow accusingly at the girl, but I quickly defused her impending rage.

"Something tells me we don't want to know," I commented, slumping against the corner and waving my hand at the French Woman's and Japanese Man's pale white faces. Laura, Rin, and Cecilia all nodded their heads together, agreeing with my statement.

"Fine, I'll let it go." Houki retired the topic, switching to a more upbeat one, probably. I would've remembered what it was, but I had found a comfortable position and promptly fell asleep.

* * *

><p>"Hey, wake up," a familiar voice ordered me. With her foot.<p>

"Houki, you stayed behind?" I asked, rubbing my own. Leg, I mean.

"Yeah, I need to ask you for a favor. Remember? You said you'll make it up to me, right?"

"Yeah, what do you need from me?"

"I'll tell you later, we need to check into the hotel."

I looked around at my surroundings. The monorail car was completely empty save for Houki and I. I got up out of my corner and followed Houki to our room. Apparently, we had been assigned to a room together so Houki had waited for me to wake up as long as possible. Then got impatient and kicked me awake.

I unpacked my duffel when I realized something horrible.

"Houki..." I shuddered, sounding as if I had just seen a ghost. "I forgot my bathing suit." I must've missed it in my rush to leave. Let's see, in that bag was my bathing suit, my school bathing suit, towel, suntan lotion, and something else. It was a last minute item – one that I stuffed into the nearest bag. Why can't I seem to remember what I put in there?

"That's not a problem," Houki interrupted my train of thought. "I need to go buy one too."

"Sounds like an idea. But what part of this makes it a favor?"

"Well, it's just," Houki fumbled before averting her eyes, "I want to find something that looks good."

"I dunno, you have a nice figure, I'm sure anything will look good on you."

"Well, it's just Ichika has all those girls around him. I want something that will grab his attention."

"And that's why you need me?"

She nodded girlishly, faint tinges of red appearing around her face. She held her face in her hands, attempting to conceal the smile coming up on her face.

"And why me?" I continued.

All red dropped from her face as she told me candidly, "You're the closest thing to a guy here besides Ichika."

I dropped my head into my hand, shaking with emotion. I kept it there as Houki asked with concern, "What's wrong? Sorry, did I hurt your feelings?"

I shook my head in my hand and raised it. My eyes were teary, but not from depression. Rather, I dropped my head into my hands to conceal the mirth I felt from being told that same exact thing.

"Ha ha ha, you know I was just told that a few days ago? I don't really see it, but let's go with that."

I took Houki's hand and led her out of the room, Houki weakly struggling before falling into my pace.

"See, you're just like a guy," Houki commented. "You always seem to get your own way. Don't you ever worry about what other people think about you?"

"Heh, in America it's usually the girl that gets her own way instead," I responded. "I guess it's just our differences in culture. As for the caring about me, there's only a handful of people whose opinions I actually care about. Other than that, I'm good."

"So, what do we have here?" a nasally familiar voice snidely remarked.

"I dunno, man, but he's got a hot little girlfriend," another deep familiar voice answered.

"Oops, that's not a guy, it's a girl. Can't you tell?" a third gravelly familiar voice mocked.

"Seriously man, how could you not see it?" Nasally chastised Deep. "She's just my type though, I love those flat-chested athletic types." Ok, that was just unnecessary. I shuddered involuntarily at the implications of this statement.

"Ugh, just leave them alone," Houki advised quietly. She picked up the pace, and after a moment of hesitation I followed her. We were just outside the Boardwalk when we were accosted by three men in punk-ish attire wearing similar colors. Normally, this would be a signal of gang affiliation or territory, but that was in America. These losers stuck out like a sore thumb out here in Japan, which was probably why the other visitors to the Boardwalk went out of their way to pass the front entrance and use the side one a little further down the beach.

"Ooh, ladies, where you going?"

"Come and hang out with us, we've never been with IS students before."

They called out to us, lounging on random equipment near the entrance while utterly failing to cajole us into joining them. Well, on the outside that's what they were doing, but they were probably here for something else.

Houki being Houki, she charged into the Boardwalk at her accelerated pace without any trouble. A few steps behind her, I attempted the same. However, as I crossed the threshold, I heard the sound of three switchblades simultaneously unsheathing. The three familiar voices melted into one whisper, positively dripping with venom: "Stay awhile, Sever..."

I put all my power into a forward jump, easily clearing two meters as the three blades stabbed empty air. Some woman screamed, a mother with her child. They entered the closest store they could find, the rest of the crowd flowing quickly behind. I landed right next to Houki and gave her a terse nod. Understanding the signal, we sprinted towards the side exit. People cleared the way for us, giving us a straight path through the middle of the Boardwalk. Unfortunately, that also meant we had only one way to run, and that path led us directly to the end of the pier. As we ran, I took stock of the surroundings. The buildings were closely packed together with alleyways separating every two shops. The shops themselves all had different types of architecture ranging from the facsimile of a barn to the facsimile of a Greek temple. The roofs were roughly the same height, but an amateur like Houki would probably not be able run them like I would. And even worse was the amusement park at the end of the pier. I could see paths through the rides that would take me to the rooftops of the shops, but Houki would definitely not be able to follow my style of free running. She was having a hard time keeping up with me on level ground!

So we ran straight through the path the crowd gave us until we reached the far railing. The three goons chasing us slowed to a lazy gaiter when they saw we were effectively herded into a dead end. While Houki caught her breath, I took a peek below us.

"It's craggy down there. I see a lot of barnacles and stuff clinging onto the supports down there. I don't think we'll be fine if we jump down there."

"*Pant* Then what do we do?" she wheezed.

"...We talk," I suggested simply. By now all of the Boardwalk innocents had cleared the area we were in. We were boxed in by the amusement park fence to our right, the ocean to our back, the souvenir shop to the right, and the violent goons in front of us. They advanced on us slowly, playing with their switchblades by folding it open and closed repeatedly. Undoubtedly they thought it was an intimidating pose, but they looked incredibly silly in their matching black and green outfits.

I stood in front of Houki and spread my hands, covering her from their sight as much as possible.

"Can I help you _gentlemen_?" I spat out the last word like a curse, not able to hide my distaste of these three.

"Oh, come on Sever, can't you take a little joke?" Nasally voice teased. The man was a lanky man. He was always crouched over to hid his true height, but from prior experience I knew that his true strength was in his flexibility. This guy could get to places much quicker than I could thanks to his deceptive height and lithe body.

"Yea, Sever. It's been so long since we last played," Gravelly voice joined in. He was definitely the most average of the three. Middle in height, middle in weight, middle in speed, but he was the smartest one. It was he who planned the best place to cut me off and trap me back when I wanted to escape from that hellhole so long ago.

"We missed you..." Deep voice finished the greeting. He was a big man, but his deception was his speed. He was as fast as Nasally, but with definitely more strength. He had the ability to run, but there were some maneuvers he just couldn't do because of his , the three men made up the team that blocked me from escaping at every time I was allowed to practice.

"I'd say the same, but I don't feel like lying today," I retorted. "So what do you want from me today?"

"We've been ordered to eliminate you," Gravelly answered seriously. The three men started to spread out in order to block my escape even more.

"And the girl behind me?"

"If she's smart, she'll leave as soon as possible. We have no orders regarding her, but we have free time after this," his perverted smile reaching the corners of his face. Matching grins appeared on the other two's faces, however Nasally was staring right at my face, rather than the doubled-over girl behind me. A cold shudder emerged from the pit of my stomach, those horrible implications once again invading the space of my mind. I focused on Gravelly, the most professional of the three, although he enjoyed his work far too much.

"You won't hurt her?"

"As long as we're fighting you," he admitted. Something about this wasn't right, why did he admit that it would take all three of them to take me on? I'm older and stronger than I was when we last tussled all those years ago, but I'm still only one person, and an unarmed girl at that. Then I realized, I'm an IS pilot in training. It's possible I have an IS on me. Not likely, but possible. Hell, they may even know about Deep Purple. So if they know this, yet they're provoking me into a fight, then they have a way to counter my IS. I searched the three punk-attired men, and found a suspicious detail in the tight leather pants of the Deep-voiced big man. Although his stance was off balance in order to create slack to hide it, his girth pushed a gun-like device into the fabric of his pants, the contours visible to the focused eye. A quick scan of the other two showed that both were also creating slack in their pants by standing off balance, and I also noticed that their free hand was on the same side as the slacked side.

They were definitely aiming for me to use my IS. The fact that there's people around would make it impossible for me to use high-ordinance weaponry and if I tried to run, they'd use the gun-like devices in their pockets. If I didn't use my IS, they'd stab me and be done with it. It didn't matter what I did, they had contingency plans for every possible option.

"Houki, you should probably get going," I said loudly, making sure they could hear me.

"What? I can't just leave you here," she argued, quietly so they wouldn't. "They want to kill you!"

"Don't worry," I declared, looking down at the girl. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a 100-yen coin. I flashed it at her briefly, then flipped it into the air, catching it in my hand as I took a fighting stance. "I didn't tell you this, but I have a personal IS."

The three men smiled further, a sure sign I had guessed their plan A correctly. Now, if I guessed plan B correctly, we might make it out of here OK.

She stared incredulously at me, then angrily saying, "Why didn't you tell me this sooner? And why do you have on? I don't even have one and I'm-"

"Because it's supposed to be a secret," I cut her off. I was sure if they found out that Houki was the infamous Shinonono Tabane's little sister, they may try to kidnap her too.

"Look, with this I should be able to take care of myself. It's a close combat type, just like the preset I use with the Uchigane," I half-lied, turning away to face my enemies and clenching my fists. "Circle around them and sprint for the exit. I'll join you shortly."

Houki hesitated, still not sure whether fleeing would be the best course of action.

"Houki, unless you've taken karate or something, you're basically useless right now," I reminded her gently.

Something about that phrase made something snap in her mind. She yelled a great cry of despair before sprinting towards the entrance, taking care to run a wide arc away from the three men. For my part, I charged forward at full speed. I held out my hand with the coin inside of it out, as if I were concentrating on calling my IS or at least a partial transformation. The three men had spread out into a triangle formation, ready to receive my attack from any direction. I jumped into the thick of their triangle, landing in the vertex and roaring out "Deep Purple!". The three of them drew their gun-like devices from their pockets and shot in response. A blinding light emitted from all three devices before coalescing into ball of pure white, me right in the middle of it. The blinding light cut off my sight, the brightness completely destroying my vision. However, I didn't need to see to use the momentum from my jump to jump once again, throwing my shoulder in front of me blindly. I was rewarded with a satisfying thud as my shoulder rammed the nose of Gravelly, who had stood in the middle of the circle. Since I hit high, it knocked Gravelly to the pier while my inertia kept me moving forward.

I threw out my legs downward in order to hopefully meet the ground before my torso did. I chanced opening my eyes and found that I could still see, but multiple little floating circles obscured my vision and made it incredibly hard to catch my bearings. Shutting my eyes again and letting them tear up, I felt my feet skid the ground before I forced them to start running again. Catching the ground once again, I tripped forward out of control. But a hand came out of nowhere and hauled me back up losing a negligible amount of speed.

"Houki?" I called, squeezing the hand tightly to show my gratitude.

"What was that? What personal IS?" she angrily chided me.

"That's hard to explain, but now's NOT THE TIME!" I yelled at her. I could hear the heavy footfalls of Deep, running in time with the lighter footsteps of Nasally. A third pair of footfalls, out of sync but definitely further back told me that Gravelly had recovered and was also chasing us. But the problem was that all three were faster than us right now. Houki was not used to running and I was blinded, we had no way of outrunning them.

"Houki, they're going to catch up to us. Can you run faster?"

"I'm pacing myself, Seberu," she calmly told me.

"For what?"

"So that I can fight them off in a more advantageous location."

"You found a katana? Here? At the Boardwalk?"

"This is Japan, remember? Just like DDR, you can find swords everywhere now," she said dryly.

She suddenly slowed down before walking in front of me like I did for her. I rubbed my eyes furiously, trying to erase the effect of the white light as much as possible. I squinted through bloodshot teary eyes at Houki taking a ready stance with a wooden katana in her hands. Amidst spinning purple circles, I saw as she took a smooth step forward and chopped the extended arm of Deep. I heard his knife clatter on the wooden floor as Houki brought up the sword in a devastating uppercut. However, she was left wide open from an attack from Nasally, who had arrived just a half-pace before deep. Houki was barely able to get the blade of Nasally's knife embedded in her wooden katana, but that gave me the opening I needed. Through my teary eyes, I twisted to give him a tremendous right hook to the face before tackling him over the near railing. I turned back to see Houki struggling in a contest of strength with Gravelly, who had a more stable stance than Houki at the moment due to Deep grabbing onto her legs. I sprung towards the interlocked pair with a flying kick. Gravelly dodged the extended foot by moving his head slightly to the side, but there was no more evading the knee that had suddenly retracted due to the fact I didn't want to land on my butt. It was a glancing blow, but it did hit his temple. For just a moment, his hands loosened and Houki brought the sword down hard on the head of Deep. Meanwhile, I downed Gravelly with a leg sweep and Houki finished the job with the same attack. I ran to the railing to see Nasally stumble around, obviously dizzy from the fall. I saw a nearby trashcan, so I emptied it out and dropped it on his head. I heard a satisfying CLANG! followed by a muted thud, the sound of his probably unconscious body hitting the wet sand. I watched him for a half minute, making sure he wasn't getting up from that.

"So, what was that all about?" Houki asked me, walking towards the rail and appraising my handiwork below.

"...Houki, I'm sorry, but can I tell you later?" I implored the girl, not able to look into her eyes. "Also, we need to keep this under wraps; we need to keep the fact they knew me a secret."

"Why do we need to do that?"

"It's related to why I have to tell you later instead of now. Let's treat this like a bunch of delinquents attempting to mug us and cite self-defense. I'm sure a lot of these people will back us up as witnesses once the police get here, so we should be fine."

"...Fine, but you have to do me a favor," she agreed after a brief hesitation.

"What?"

"I still need my bathing suit," she admitted bashfully.

I smacked my head in exasperation. "You really know how to stay focused, don't you?"

"Kendo teaches one discipline. If you have trouble, you can always come train with me," once again her eyes shined with that pride I saw while training, but mixed with a sadness I couldn't place. It was if she was proud of what she accomplished, but still desired more. I didn't know what else I could offer her, so I agreed.

"I'll take you up on that sometime. Until then, that shop looks like its selling some nice looking suits."

We spent the 30 minutes the police needed to show up choosing swimsuits for the two of us. I chose a modest one piece, sea-green in color, matching it with a pair of beige-white short pants to complete the look. I didn't exactly look like a supermodel with my flat chest and tall stature, but I didn't exactly look like a run-of-the-mill tourist either. Houki, however, found a rather nice white bikini that hugged her hips and exposed her cleavage quite sexily. She almost passed it up due to embarrassment until I mentioned it was probably the best thing to grab the attention of a certain boy we knew. After a few more encouraging words from both the sales clerk and I, Houki purchased a swimsuit I would not have the confidence to wear even if I had her bust.

The police took our statements and escorted us to the resort our class was staying a bit after 3. Orimura-sensei received us at the door, and after a short report of our activities today, allowed us the rest of the day for free time to wander the beach. Of course, our report consisted of the enhanced truth we gave the police, but I'm sure Orimura-sensei saw through it, even if she didn't show it. After repeating my promise to explain everything later tonight, Houki left to climb a nearby cliff, staring at the horizon. As for me, I jogged up and down the beach, every now and again chatting up some locals to find where the good food was. Every time I heard someplace interesting, I sampled their wares. Then, I made a mental list of things to learn to cook when I get a chance. I don't think me by myself would be enough to tempt these cooks to giving up their recipes, but I knew a certain cooking club newbie who would be glad to enlist in my recipe hunt. When I returned, I spied Houki still standing on that cliff. Orimura-sensei approached her and began a conversation with her. I was tempted to spy on the two, but indigestion had finally reared its ugly head and I retreated to the resort to do what I needed to do to relieve myself.


	10. Chapter 10 Treading the Line

IS Chapter 10 – Treading the Line Between T and M

Author's Note: It has come to my attention that I should probably put a disclaimer up, so here goes:

Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit fan-based parody. Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT are all owned by-

Wait...

The following is a non-profit fan-created work of fiction using the characters and plot from Infinite Stratos the Anime. All rights belong to whoever wrote the damn series. I'll figure out a better way to disclaim later.

More notes after the chapter end.

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><p>Chapter Start<p>

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><p>After buying some medicine from the convenience store nearby, I rested in the room Houki and I shared waiting for my uncomfortable symptoms to die down. I tried to while away the time by using my AR to review of last week's lessons, but as I suspected the AR had a hard time connecting with the Academy's database. So instead, I thought up a suitable story to tell Houki. I didn't want to lie, but I really couldn't tell my roommate that I was once part of a terrorist organization, especially when that roommate brought her kendo equipment along. After choosing my cover story, I decided to take a bath before dinner. The way I'm feeling right now, I hope it turns out to be a light dinner.<p>

After collecting a bathrobe from the bath service kiosk, I headed to the ladies side of the baths and disrobed, removing the tie keeping my ponytail braided. I was about to enter the baths proper, when I heard unfamiliar voices mention Houki's and my names. My curiosity piqued, I inched towards the door that would lead towards the baths and listened in.

"I heard that Houki and Seberu beat up some gang members."

"Geez, what did they do to get mixed up with gangsters?"

"Seriously. I'm not surprised they won, even without IS, but Houki's not the type to go looking for a fight, especially in public places like that."

"Yeah, she's a bit excessive in club, but outside of it she's the prefect lady."

"She's smart, sophisticated, and elegant, what is she even doing hanging around with Seberu?"

"They were paired up in the same room, I guess they both had to go to the Boardwalk for some reason. Houki's too cool to let anyone go off by themselves, even Seberu. I'm sure Seberu did something to make the gangsters attack them."

I silently crept out of the bath changing room, not wanting the ladies to know I was there. However, I realized that I was still naked. I was about to rush back into the dressing room when I heard footsteps coming from around the hallway's corner. I didn't want to run into the girl's baths, not when they were gossiping negatively about me, so that left me with one option. I dashed into the men's dressing room, hiding behind the wall. Luckily, the school had bought out the resort for the beach class, therefore the only guy I had to watch out for was Orimura. Hmm, no, I really didn't care enough about him to see me naked, but I wouldn't be caught dead naked in the hallway. I can barely tolerate negative gossip about me, I don't need to give them more ammo.

Then I remembered why I came here in the first place. Well, since I had successfully infiltrated the opposite sex's baths, I may as well use them. I opened the sliding door and was assailed with the heavy smell of nature. The baths were apparently modeled after natural hot spring resorts. Unfortunately, this area had no hot springs, so the resort made do with decoration and mineral salts. However, to differentiate between the two sides of the baths, the resort keepers added perfumes to the ladies bath. Strong perfumes as I could smell them even hiding behind the door. However, the men's side was filled with the scent of pine and roughage, like the bath was the treasure of the forest to be shared by all the creatures of nature. But only for bathing. I hope.

I stepped into the heated pool as delicately as possible. Even though my lacerations from my earliest injury had healed, traces of red still criss-crossed beneath the surface of the water, the never-fading evidence of my first true IS fight. I submerged myself in the shallow, half-meter deep pool. I crossed the circular pool to the far side of the bath, about 5 meters in diameter. The pool itself was surrounded with forest plants, pruned to small size so that animals wouldn't live in them, and a system of bamboo pipes. Obviously the water was fed to the bath via large underwater pipe, but the bamboo pipes gave it a more nostalgic feel, as if man had stumbled upon this oasis in the forest and gave it their own touch. Tall enough to slouch comfortably in the water, I rested my feet against a heavy rock I had dropped in the pool to prevent me from slipping forward. I proceed to take a short nap, obscured in the steam when I was rudely awakened by a light kick.

"Yo Orimura, what's up?" I sleepily yawned.

The kick turned into a shove that sent me into the water. Now shocked awake, I quickly bottled up my surprise in order to not shout and give my position away to the girls in the other bath.

I slowly rose out of the water to find myself face-to-face with a blushing Houki - or maybe a superheated Houki, I couldn't tell in the steam.

"Then 'Yo Houki, what's up?'" I amended my previous greeting.

"Don't 'what's up' me, Seberu," she quietly scolded me. "What are you doing in here?"

"Catching some Z's," I joked, but that just served to make Houki redder. "Actually, I heard people gossiping about us in the other bath so I came here instead. What about you?"

Still very red, she evaded my eye contact and mumbled, "...same reason."

Not a chance. Oh well, I better cool her down, she looks like she may faint from heat exhaustion anytime soon. I climbed out of the pool and sat on the edge. Before the cold air could chill me I wrapped my torso in a towel from a convenient stack near the bath side. The towel insulated me enough to not cause a sudden drop in temperature, but to allow it to steadily fall. I noticed that the red lines crossing my legs had begun to fade, but I also noticed that it attracted Houki's attention too.

"Is that related to the incident earlier today?" she ventured.

"...No, this was from a much earlier incident."

"Is it a good time to talk about it? About why those guys tried to kill you?"

"I don't know about why, but keep this to yourself, ok? I can't tell you everything, but I'll tell you as much as I think I can." I decided on telling Houki an incomplete truth after realizing that I would never remember the convoluted story I came up with in the room earlier. I patted the space next to me and wrapped another towel around Houki as she climbed out.

"Let's start with this: Was that the first time you've ever fought anybody outside the confines of kendo club or competitions?"

"Not counting the spar with you, it was my first time."

"How did it make you feel?"

"When you told me I was useless, I was so mad. But not at you. I was mad at the fact that you were completely right. I don't know how to fight unarmed, and I didn't have an IS. I mean, it's understandable that I can't walk around Japan with a sword, but I could easily go anywhere without arousing suspicion if I only had a personal IS. If I only had a personal IS I could have easily taken care of those guys. But I didn't. And then you risked your life to get me out of there. But then I saw you tackle the lead guy and try to keep running.

"I saw a barrel full of wooden katanas, and thought 'Now, we don't need to run.' I grabbed you and led them to an open area of the pier so that I could fight well. And then, well, I felt useful and strong. Especially while you recovered behind me, I felt an incredible pride in protecting you. Then, when you fought alongside me, I felt a bond, like I could trust you to back me up. It was an exhilarating experience, although if I had an IS, I'm sure I could've taken care of the fight.

"So, were you actually glad we got into that fight?" I asked quietly.

She blushed, this time definitely from embarrassment as she defended, "I don't think so, I'm just glad that all my years of practice were finally put to some real use. I felt...justice."

"I see," I began, just as quiet as my last question. "Well, in every real fight I've ever had, I've never felt 'justice'. I've been captured, hurt, scarred, or hospitalized in every real defeat I've had. In fact, it's a miracle I'm not dead yet. And as for victories, though few and far between I've never felt proud of the win."

I stared into the disturbed surface of the water, trying to find the barest glimmer of a reflection in the water to see how my face looked at this very moment.

"Houki, do you remember our spar yesterday, when I mounted you to try to smash your head in?"

I wasn't looking at her, but I could tell Houki had violently flinched, realizing what I was getting at.

"I've taken lives with my hands, Houki. I've taken lives and had many close calls with attempts on my own. This is probably the first one that ended with a legitimate arrest."

"I'm, I'm sorry," Houki choked out, struck speechless by my confession.

"It's fine, I'm still trying to cope with taking their lives. I can't tell you why I've had to fight so many times, but I will tell you that IS Academy and Orimura-sensei are protecting me. They believe I'm worth protecting, so please, don't be afraid of me."

"Is that why you act friendly to everyone, yet try to avoid social engagements? So that people aren't afraid of you and that if you were attacked, you wouldn't risk harm to anyone else?" Houki accused me.

I grinned, "No, but that sounds a lot better than 'I'm naturally friendly' and 'I hate social engagements'."

Houki smiled back at me, "Well, at least you didn't go emo on me."

My smile faded as I sunk back into the bath, the towel floating off to the other side of the pool.

"...Hey, if you ever feel like I do right now, remember, doing nothing will only achieve nothing. If you truly regret something, than instead of shutting down you should do whatever you can to make it up to yourself or whoever you wronged. If someone sacrifices themselves for you, you must live as if they were living through you as well and seek enough happiness for the both of you."

"...How _do_ you feel right now?" Houki asked, probably never having felt this way before. I dipped my head under the water before answering.

"Responsible and regretful. Like if I was just a little bit stronger, a little bit more in control I wouldn't have had to kill anyone. I...I don't want to kill anyone. Not anymore."

I waded to the end of the bath closest to the dressing room. Getting out and wrapping the towel around me, I walked to the door when the thing suddenly opened. I dropped the towel to the floor, accidentally giving Orimura a full frontal.

Orimura tightly closed his eyes and reflexively defended his nether region. Not that I blamed him, that seemed to be the default response to this kind of situation in anime. But I was actually more surprised that I was right in thinking I didn't care enough about him to see me naked. This barely registered a blip on my embarrassment meter. So instead I whispered, "Hey, Orimura. I forgot to rinse, so do you mind waiting about five, no ten minutes?"

"Y-y-y-yes!" he girlishly yelped before stiffly turning around and purposefully marching out of the dressing room.

I walked back around the bath to where Houki was lounging in the hot water. I gently pressed her head under that water, causing a sputtering Houki to bob back to the surface.

"What?" she hissed.

"You've got ten minutes to get out before Orimura comes in," I warned her. Her face suffused to an incredible shade of crimson before steam literally blew out her ears. She fainted right there in the both, leading me to jump in and carry her out. I rinsed and dried the both of us before dressing us in our robes and exiting the dressing room, Houki cradled in my arms. I think it was called the "princess carry", or something like that.

As I rounded the corner, I almost bumped into Orimura, both of us executing a perfectly synchronized pivot in opposite directions.

"Hey, Orimura," I greeted him again.

"H-h-hey," he stammered, clearly remembering my accidental show.

"Do me a favor, hold Houki for a bit."

"What? S-sure, I guess." I carefully transferred my sleeping burden onto Orimura, who easily bore the weight in his strong arms. After stretching way back and cracking my knuckles, I retied my ponytail by braiding two long ropes of hair together, tying them off with a black tie at the orange tip. Then, I put all my strength in slapping Orimura's back with an open hand. My hand stung with a a deserving pain, but Orimura looked relieved with the attack. Looks like he'd been worrying about how I'd react, and now that I did something, we'd be able to treat each other normally now. Hmm, what to do about this?

Well, in any case I should take care of my patient first. "OK, I'll take her back now."

Orimura gratefully handed the girl back to me and then immediately started rubbing his back against the cool wall. "Did you have to hit me that hard?"

"No, but you looked like you needed a good shock. As a good friend should, I gave you 110% of what I got," I chirped.

"Geez," he groaned, making his way to the bath. "What were you doing in there anyways? And what's wrong with Houki?"

"Well, I just didn't want to join the others since they were gossiping about me. Houki just overheated in the pool, so I recovered her since she's my roommate. Any other questions? Oh yeah, don't worry about Houki, she just needs rest in a cool room."

Orimura pondered a while before admitting, "Yea, she's probably fine in your hands, Seberu. Alright, I'll take my bath without worrying."

"Good man," I responded. He bumped my fist before heading into the men's dressing room.

"Whoo boy, let's get you into a futon," I told the now smiling Houki. "I think you're even redder than before. I wonder why..." I thought aloud sarcastically.

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><p>"I'm envious, she looks crazy happy there," I commented aloud to no one in particular. I was watching Houki dream an apparently pleasing dream as she kept blushing and pulling the covers over her face. "If she does this nightly, I feel sorry for the poor sucker who got stuck with her as a roommate."<p>

I changed out of my bathrobe into the more casual robes the resort had prepared for us. After laying out a set for Houki, I visited Orimura-sensei in the room she shared with her little brother, taking advantage of the fact he was in the bath.

"Just the one I wanted to see," she began, motioning for me to sit at the other side of the table she was sitting at. Sensei was dressed in a similar robe, drinking a can of beer she probably procured from the same convenience store I got my medicine from. "What really happened at the Boardwalk today?"

"Well, Sensei," I answered without hesitation, already prepared for this confrontation, "I was attacked by people from Phantom Task."

I proceeded to tell her exactly what had happened in the Boardwalk at that time, from recognizing the three punks that had blocked my chances of escape back when I was younger, to deducing that they had some kind of equipment for dealing with my IS, to trying to get Houki out of there, to Houki changing her mind and taking a stand and us winning the fight. I also told her that I was the one who came up with the cover story, figuring it probably wasn't in our best interest to tell Houki nor the public about their involvement with a terrorist group.

"Hmm, you mentioned they shot you?"

"Yes, by some kind of gun that shot a light at me. In hindsight, I realize it was a bit more of a risk than I should have taken. Even though it was most likely an anti-IS weapon, it could have also been deadly to humans as well."

"So, in retrospect, how do you feel about it then?" Orimura-sensei prompted.

I though about it for a while. Realizing I was getting nowhere, I voiced my opinions instead. "I just admitted that I could've died, right?" I started off. Orimura-sensei nodded patiently. "Isn't this a situation where I would go berserk and aggressive then? After all, they were the ones who trained me to be like this, and there's precedence of me still with the effects of that training. It's possibly safe to say they expected me to go berserk then, right? I wonder, what if they actually didn't want eliminate me like they said they would, they just said that to trigger my berserk mode?"

Orimura patiently waited, a smirk forming on her lips as I really got on a roll with my deductions.

"What if, in reality, they wanted to capture me in berserker mode, not harm me? After all, I am the sleeper agent they spent so much time training. What if they wanted to recover me? Well, that's besides the point, I guess."

"Oh?" Orimura-sensei curiously said. "What's 'besides the point'?"

"Well, you asked me how I felt about it right? At the time, I thought I had completely figured it out, so I thought up a plan to get both Houki and I out of there. I guess I felt...lucid."

"Hmph," Orimura-sensei grunted. "There it is."

"What?"

"I've been going through your reports, all 80,000 or so words of them," she mentioned, digging into a bag nearby and pulling a little screen. She started messing with it until she found a particular memo. "I've noticed that even though you write in a clear state of mind, you also remember when you lose it. So it was very easy to identify the times you actually go berserk and read between the lines a bit. In summary, you go berserk when you feel your life is threatened and you're alone."

"What do you mean?"

"When you fought Laura the first time in Yamada-sensei's presence, you didn't go berserk, but when you fought her a second time you did. When you fought in the double tournament last month with Nohotoke, you didn't go berserk, but when you fought Laura again in the darkness, you did. And now, fighting against actual assassins you didn't go berserk, but kept a lucid and calm mind even though the requirements for berserk mode were fulfilled. The common element between them is the amount of people on your side. You go berserk when on you're own, but when you have people you can count on you don't."

"But wait, what about that first fight? The one with the black IS. I don't remember going crazy at all during that fight. In fact, I had a mini-epiphany! And I was all by myself!" I countered, not wanting to believe in such an obvious pattern.

"But, what were you fighting for?"

The answer was there, but I didn't want to say it. I wanted to think I had no control over my violent side, that I could justify all the times I threw myself into harm's way and disrespect the teaching those I could call "mothers" gave me. But, I was wrong. I didn't just "throw myself" into harm's way for the sake of risking my life, but I was risking my life to honor that teaching by protecting the people close to me. People like...

"Nefer." I whispered.

"You've been dancing around the subject a bit, but I don't think someone who feels an obligation to 'love' someone would have the strength to risk themselves like that. If you were just 'acting' like the real Sever, would you tease her like you did? Take care of her like you did? Throw yourself out of a window like you did?

"You created a bond with her, a true bond that protects your mind from devolving into that berserker psyche. When you forget about that bond and only think of yourself, you fall prey to that installed training. So here's your test: can you keep in your heart a simple phrase?"

"...'I love Nefer', right?"

"Congratulations, you pass," she declared, reaching into her robe and pulling out my gloves. She put them on the desk and waited for me to put them on.

I stared at the gloves without moving, a million thoughts coursing through my head.

"Are you not going to take them?" she asked.

"Can I really remember that phrase? I mean, if it's true than why do I need to actively remember it? Isn't something like that supposed to be the first thing I think of?"

Orimura took a long drag of her can of beer. "Listen brat, you've been watching too much anime. Whatever the genre, if it's got romance in it there's bound to be some blockhead running around whose first impulse is just that. But this is the real world, kiddo. Humans in the real world are very narcissistic. It's considered normal. People like who I just described in anime are the oddballs. So, when a normal person in the real world encounters a situation right out of an anime, what do you think their first prerogative will be? Time's up, the answer's 'How will this benefit me'?

"But, you see, we humans can create greater strength when we purposefully suppress this narcissism and choose cooperation. We are at our strongest when we choose to protect others rather than just ourselves. Although narcissism is our base instinct, the intelligent and strong realize this and thus band together. So that's why you need to actively remember that you love and want to protect Nefer. This also extends to your friends. Anyone of them could be the inspiration you need to retain your sanity and fight as yourself. Humans accomplish more when they think about others rather than just themselves."

She finished the rest of the beer, than smashed the beer can on her forehead, flattening it into a small disc.

"Well, since you're here, you might as well have dinner with me and Yamada-sensei."

"Ehh?"

* * *

><p>"So, this is what you were really after?" I said, clad in an apron inside of the kitchen.<p>

"We'll let you have some of our gourmet food, it's only right that you repay our favor with desert," Orimura-sensei explained.

"Well, then it better be worth it."

"Oh it will!" Yamada-sensei exulted. "We're having a turkey roast, imported all the way from the heart of America. It's going to be amazing!"

"Oh? Well, than maybe I'll make a pie to go with it. I'll see what I can scrounge up," I offered.

"I can't wait!" Yamada-sensei's eyes sparkled with the thought of having a freshly baked pie to eat. "Our cook told me all about how good you are at cooking! I can't wait to try something for myself!"

"So, is that why you 'accidentally' spoiled the original desert and suggested Sever make something for us?" Orimura-sensei accused her, raising a questioning eyebrow.

"...That's a secret," she smiled, a rare moment of Yamada-sensei's humorous side. Looked like she was a bit devious too, I should watch out for her.

They left me alone to work on my craft. I had made pies before, but the filling was going to be the difficult one. I knew that cranberry pie was a traditional desert served with turkey, but where was I going to find cranberries in Japan?

Oh, apparently in the freezer. They were suffering from a crazy amount of freezer burn, probably a long forgotten relic from years ago. Unfortunately, frozen items usually had a "best used" date instead of an "expires" date, so I decided to at least give this a try. I rinsed off as much of the freezer burn as possible, than mashed the small frozen berries into a thick paste. I gave the mash a quick taste test, the flavor much too strong to serve as is. Fortunately, it still tasted like cranberries, so I rooted around in the fridge to find something to mix in. Upon finding a tub of cream cheese, a spark of ingenuity filled my mind. With no Nefer to stop me I mixed the cream cheese into the cranberry mush, mixing it well. The result was a thick cream that tasted vaguely of cream cheese but mostly of cranberries. A rare success!

Using butter and graham cracker crumbs, I made a pie crust by pressing the mixture firmly onto the sides of a pie plate, smoothly and evenly about a half centimeter thick. Too thick and it would be soft at the end, to little and it would fall apart. Judging from the weight of the cranberry-cream mixture, it felt about right although I've only made two pies in this manner. I used the left over pie crust mixture to make strips of dough, criss crossing them over the top and tucking them into the filling as close to the crust as possible. As an afterthought, I sprinkled brown sugar on the pie and then plopped it into the oven to bake.

I wasn't sure how long it would take, so I took my dinner in the kitchen. The slices of turkey were so moist they could put out a forest fire! Coupled with the mashed potatoes loaded with cheese and gravy as well as the perfectly steamed vegetables, every bite made me hungrier for more. I was so engrossed in eating the meal, I had almost forgotten to check every few minutes to check the consistency of the dough. Eventually, I was satisfied with how baked the pie was, and broke off a small piece.

Delicious! The graham cracker crust mixed very well with the cranberry-mixture, although the brown sugar was a bit too light to taste properly. The experimental pastry was a success! I was putting it on a serving plate, when I heard a door slam open hard, causing the wall it was attached to to shake.

"Can't you guys have a meal quietly?" I heard Orimura-sensei shout. I couldn't stop snickering when I heard her continue, "Orimura, stop making a scene. You're causing trouble for me." I wasn't surprised; he was the only guy in a room full of excitable girls. He probably did something cute or romantic without realizing it and stimulated the love bug in them or something. I'm so glad I was immune to his charms.

I proudly brought out the serving plate to a waiting Orimura-sensei and Yamada-sensei, along with the other classes' teachers whom I didn't remember the names of. I stayed long enough to hear their cries of enjoyment before slipping back into the kitchen to clean up. For some reason, hearing them like my pie so much embarrassed me greatly, probably since they were all people I should respect. So I distracted myself with cleaning the dishes I used to bake.

After a minute, Orimura-sensei entered the kitchen with the other plates and assisted me with cleaning them. The staff would take care of the students, but our meal was our business they had said. After finishing the small chore, I left to go to bed when Orimura-sensei called me back to her room.

* * *

><p>She locked the door behind us and once again sat at the table. I retook my own seat as Orimura-sensei produced a folded-up paper from inside her robe.<p>

"I've been meaning to ask, but there aren't any pockets in those robes. Where exactly do you keep them?"

"...Don't worry about it, you don't exactly have the assets to reproduce the effect," she smugly teased.

"Blah, cheap shot, Sensei. So, what's up? Is there more?"

"Yes," her tone becoming serious again. "Before dinner, I went to the local jail to interrogate the assassins from Phantom Task. When I arrived, they told me the three were found dead in their cells, a bullet in each one's brain. In addition, the assailant stole the three gun-like devices you mentioned and destroyed them, leaving incomprehensible debris in the nearby trashcan. They don't know how the assailant breached their security, but the guards on duty and the other inmates there reported that there was nothing out of the ordinary, and definitely no sound of gunfire."

"Maybe the assassin used a silenced gun?"

Orimura-sensei shook her head, "No, silenced guns still do make a noise. In that small area, I'm sure a silenced pistol would make more than enough noise to alert the police that there was an intruder."

"Odd."

"Very. However, the assassin did leave one bit of evidence. It was a note written in English. I figure you'd be the best person to give it to."

Confused, I took the note in question and unfolded it. It simply read:

Stadium, 8pm, Come Alone Or Else She Dies.

It was simply signed "X".

"What the?"

"As you can see, it's a note of challenge from a verified member of Phantom Task. Before you ask, no, you are not permitted to investigate. The terrorist will be dealt with by the proper authorities backed up by our staff. I just hope they make it there in time," she drawled sarcastically. What was she planning?

"In any case, you are not _permitted_ to investigate the matter," she stated mechanically, but stressing that single word. You will not be given an IS to fly back in the, oh, 30 minutes or so, it takes to return to the academy. However, I do expect to see you back here for roll at 8 in the morning. Understand?"

"Understood," a grateful smile playing on my lips, as I grabbed the gloves off her desk and ran out the door.

* * *

><p>Thirty-two minutes later (needing a couple of minutes to let the pain of equipping Deep Purple fade away), I touched down gently in the middle of a darkened stadium. The clouds covered the moon, the perfect setting for an ambush.<p>

Or a dramatic entrance as the clouds parted, the pale beam of moonlight revealing a familiar black IS standing on the end of the North runway.

This was a complete Noctores Gospel, fully equipped and spotlessly clean. It's reflective black finish scattered dull light everywhere as it crouched forward, implanting two stakes into the floor of the runway. The giant gun on its back faced me, charging with that familiar purple glow.

Terror flags within in me screamed to retreat. A bestial howl erupted from the depths of my soul, crying to be released upon this monster. But I was calm. I was lucid. I was prepared with my magical phrase.

"I love Nefer." I told myself. I'll protect her from you, and this time I'll take care of you properly, you sadistic old man.

I charged the black IS, not willing to use Ignition Boost at this time. Judging from my earlier experience, the gun needed to charge for quite a while before it was full, at least a minute. It would take me 5 seconds at this range. He fired the incomplete blast, the blast dissipating harmlessly against my Aegis shields. He un-staked his hands, then used his crouch to spring back in an effort to dodge my Aegis-enhanced punch. I landed gently on the runway before launching myself again. My shielded punch barely missed the evasive IS, flying chaotically to avoid my telegraphed punches. Alright, something different then.

A final charge placed me directly above the black IS. From this position, I pulled out Longshock and loaded it with Aegis bullets. The black IS responded with a half charged blast from both wrist cannons, followed by a volley of lesser shots. I shot all 12 shots at the two large blasts, then got ready to use Grand Aegis. Since the attacks themselves were energy-based, they had no velocity for my Longshock bullets to reduce. However, the bullets still had air trapped in them. It took three bullets each for the half charged blast to be dissipated by the rapidly expanding air, while the lesser shots served to detonate the other bullets. The rest of the energy pellets bounced harmlessly off my Grand Aegis.

We were at a stalemate, our long range weapons able to cancel each other easily, my quick reload versus its quick volleys. As long as I didn't give it enough time to charge an attack, I could match the IS blow for blow. Therefore, I needed more blows.

I reloaded the Longshock before calling out "Blue Tears!" My shoulder guards replaced themselves with the familiar UAVs, when I heard a familiar voice from the arena speakers exude "That's it!"

The lamps of the stadium lit up, flooding the arena with light. The walls shimmered, then erected the level 4 barrier that protected the audience from the fight. The IS automatically diluted the bright light in an effort to keep me from being blinded. Thanks to this reaction, I was able to dodge a half-charged wrist shot by spinning to the side lightly, then a surge of speed toward my antagonist to evade the volley of small shots. With the added speed from my forward charge, I threw my explosive javelins, the Blue Tears UAVs. With the extra speed from the charge, Noctores Gospel had no chance to evade, the four UAVs pushed it down towards the ground. Trusting my IS with the timing, I shot the last two missiles so they contacted right before hitting the ground for maximum damage. I dismissed the Blue Tears shoulder guards, calling upon Shenlong's left arm. The arm itself was constructed with a wrist that could rotate 360 degrees freely and rapidly. But more importantly, it was equipped with one of the scimitars Rin used. I called out the blade from the BUS slot, and dove down at the enemy.

Right before hitting the ground, the two straggling missiles caught up with the rapidly falling gorilla IS. The two exploded, chaining the detonation of the four UAVs that pinned that black IS. If it were airborne, I'm sure it would've been able to recover easily, although heavily damaged by the attack. However, by knocking close to the ground, its resultant momentum was violently arrested by the ground. Watching from my dive, I saw it's four limbs separate from the main body and scatter due to the explosion. A much better outcome than I expected, but I'll finish it off with this. I held the scimitar in a downward stab, the inductive coils within the weapon superheating it to the point it made the air turn into glowing plasma. My AD protected me from some of the heat, but I could feel my face start to perspire as I pushed the glowing sword through space.

I landed hard on the ground, no Aegis there to absorb the shock. I took a minor hit to my shield energy, but the stab cleanly separated the unmanned IS into two orange and steaming casks of metal. I dismissed the red-hot scimitar, recalling my normal IS parts as I looked towards the observation tower on the North runway.

An excited clap echoed from the speaker, along with a familiarly oppressive voice that was now laden with pride.

"Look at that, you truly did become our finest weapon," he announced to the empty stadium. "Alright, I rescind the order to kill you, come back to us, Sever."

"I refuse," I coldly stated, reminding myself of my love for Nefer before I let hot rage spill into my hands.

"You should come back to us though, that ability to replicate other IS parts would come in very handy for our objectives. You would become an invaluable, high-ranked officer in our organization. They'd probably even give you your own country!"

"I refused, did you not hear me?" I stated louder, not able to hide the irritation in my voice.

"Alright, I hear you, I hear you. I figured that instead of one warrior like you I would rather have two. Well, I guess I'll still have two after this. Nefer!"

"WHAT?" I yelled as an IS descended from the sky. This IS was a mess, a mishmash of parts scrapped together from old Uchiganes and the remains of the first Noctores Gospel. The thin spindly legs and giant cannon from Noctores Gospel was matched with the shoulder guards and arm guards of some Uchigane. Although symmetric, the size of the legs did not match that of the arms. The IS looked more like a walking coatrack than a weapon, but what caught my attention was the one riding the IS.

"Nefer! What are you doing in that?" I shouted at the girl.

In the bright light of the stadium, I could see she was still red with fever. Her body shook with every labored breath she took. It was apparent to me that she was relying on the IS to just stand up straight!

"Nefer, you're still sick, I know it. Take that off and go to sleep," I ordered her, switching to an open comm channel for her to connect to.

"No, no," she gasped through the speaker. "We fight, now. She bent down and shot the main gun on her back."

I reacted by crossing my arms and guarding with Grand Aegis. Although the damage was negated, it sent me flying into the shield of the arena. Apparently, not even Grand Aegis could completely negate the force of the fully-charged attack. The impact diminished my energy even more, down to 150 units. I allowed myself to fall, landing lightly on the South runway.

"Use the equipment in there to recharge yourself, Ate. We will have a fair fight, your full power versus mine. I will prove myself to you."

"Full power? You're sick! How could I fight you like this?" I argued.

"Don't worry," she panted. "I've got that under control. Now, go or I'll shoot you again." The familiar pink glow had already started up again, Nefer was definitely serious right now. I had no choice but to satisfy her demand. But first, I need to remind myself why i'm doing this. It's because "I love Nefer." I'll protect her from X.

Wait...

"Nefer, can we talk for a bit?" I asked her.

"What?" she coldly returned.

"What are you doing inside of that mismatched pile of junk IS?"

"Mismatched pile of junk? I spent a whole day working on this with Mr. X," she yelled back in a horse voice, the feedback ringing in my ears.

"What?"

"I'm going to beat you, disable you, and then I'm going to make my own mark on the world. I'm going to make this a better place where dad's don't cheat on their wives, where parents don't go off and die before their kids, and stupid big sisters don't abandoned their little sisters for _friends_," she sneered out that last word with obvious hatred.

"Nefer?" I whispered, my voice refusing to come out.

"I hate this life, and I hate this world. And I hate you, Ate! I hate how you left me alone today, and how you kept getting in trouble, and how you kept pushing me away! I hate this school that made you do all that! I don't want to be here anymore! I..I just want to go home, ATE!"

As she screamed for me, the IS melted around her, exactly like what had happened to Laura. Ok, I'm going to need every edge I've got to win this. I quickly recharged my IS inside the hanger, taking the opportunity to replenish my Blue Tears copy as well. _I'm going to save Nefer, even if it's from herself_, I swore. The blood in my body was afire, a burning desire coursing through my veins. I will save my sister!

I emerged from the hanger, when the sight in front of my caused my previously burning blood to freeze ice cold. Standing in front of me was another Deep Purple. Everything from the violet paint job to the leg grieves and gauntlets. The only difference between us was the pilot. I was a tall, flat-chested girl with a long, orange ponytail wearing a dull green swimsuit and beige-white short pants. She was a short girl with large breasts wearing the IS academy IS pilot suit, her long hair hidden by a familiar helmet. No, there was another difference. Behind her, hidden from sight was the ginormous main cannon of the Noctores unit.

"Ate Sever," a combination of Nefer's voice and a mechanical echo cut through the air, the comm channel cut off abruptly. "I loved you so much. I idolized you. I always watched as you ran around the building, pulling off acrobatic feats no one else could replicate. Not even me. This form is a result of my love for you. But this power is mine and mine alone!"

Seemingly healed, she took a fighting stance, and waited for my approach. Although the stance was similar to my own, her balance was pushed more to the back. This could mean only one thing, she was going for a jolt counter, a counter that not only interrupts an attack but could be considered an attack on its own as well. It was a devastating blow that required perfect timing, the theory of it taught to me back as a kid (before it was erased).

In order to save her, I have to meet her with all my strength. I charged forward at maximum speed, not using Ignition Boost to accelerate. Once in range, I dug my foot in the ground and delivered an incredible right hook, protecting my face with my offhand. But before I could make contact, a fist broke through my Aegis and sent me flying back into the sky. I recovered with a flip, checking my shield to see that only a little bit of shield energy was used to guard that attack.

Aegis arrested offensive mass-based attacks and dissipated energy-based attacks. But it's been experimentally proven that Aegis can be overpowered by either type of attack, draining my shield energy and sending me flying. But in the case of a direct mass-based attack, whether or not it overpowered the Aegis, the person whose attack was stopped would still feel a reaction force due to the loss of momentum. It seemed that this reaction force was enough to cause Nefer's copied arm to disintegrate into dust.

I held in a load of vomit as I witnessed the consequences of blocking such a blow with my Aegis. Her naked arm was scarred, with fragments of bone sticking out every which way; curiously with no blood seeping out of the wounds. The AD must not be able to protect against reaction forces!

But Nefer didn't seem to mind, not looking at all in pain or if she even noticed the messed up state of her arm. She simply snapped her fingers on her other hand, the specks of dust congregating around her broken arm. The black dust wrapped around her fragments of bone, forcing them back into alignment and making it look almost normal except for the lacerations. Then, the dust congealed into a liquid, before reforming another gauntlet. Once it formed, Nefer charged me, activating the thrusters in her equipment and performing an Ignition Boost.

I can't use my Aegis, not after what happened before. And if I used Grand Aegis, the inertia would squash her internals like a pancake. Then I remembered what Cecilia said, when we conversed after our fight in the team tournament. I flared my thrusters, not using Ignition Boost but as fast as I could. These few extra seconds bought me enough time to draw my Longshock, still filled with Aegis bullets, and fire them into the speeding body.

Unlike Cecilia did during the team tournament, I kept shooting bullet after bullet, emptying out my gun. However, Nefer's mass was too large, the bullets kept exploding. However, this did have the effect of slowing her down considerably. The 12 bullets reduced her sub-sonic initial speed to something a great deal more manageable. I grabbed her extended leg, and swung her back down to the ground. After using Ignition Boost, there was no way she'd be able to use the thruster to right herself, and she made a sickening crash when she cratered into the ground.

I charged the observation tower, only to be rebuffed by the arena shield.

"What do you think you're doing?" X shouted through the speakers, panicked that I was coming for him now. I punched the shield over and over, but it wouldn't give.

Upon observing this, X quickly recomposed himself and laughed, "Don't you have better things to do than waste your effort fighting a wall?"

Oh crap, Nefer's back up. I need to remember, I'm going to save her from herself. I turned around, activating Grand Aegis to defend against yet another fully-charged cannon shot. Again, the Grand Aegis couldn't withstand the shot completely and sent me flying into the shield. Flattened and dazed, through spinning vision I saw Nefer charge at me once again, her thrusters back online after the Boost, but not able to do it again for a while.

I slapped my cheeks in order to wake myself up, then fired my thrusters to push me down along the shield. The edges of my shoulder guards made a screeching sound on the shield as Nefer's fist hit empty air, kicking off the shield in order not to hit it directly. I used the shield to push myself away from the boundary, getting distance from the serious sister. She gave me no time to breath, following me closely and not stopping her relentless attack. I blocked attack after attack without my Aegis, absorbing or redirecting every blow.

_This is getting nowhere! I'm tiring quickly, but she's not even breathing hard, _I thought to myself. In fact, it didn't even seem like she was breathing at all. Was this related to her not bleeding earlier as well? I need answers, but I can't ask the questions right now?

I'm going to save her! I promised, but first, I'm going to hurt you a little bit, Nefer!

Using the sensors, I guided us near the ground. As soon as I touched down, I planted my back foot in the dirt and smashed Nefer with a hard fist. The bullet landed solidly with Nefer's chin, sending Nefer high into the sky.

I summoned Laura's Katastrophe rail gun, and began the charge. Since this did not replace any of my parts, my Aegis was still able to be used, however the thing was heavy and threw my balance off. Keeping an eye on the wildly spinning Nefer in the sky, I shouted "What did you do to Nefer? X!"

Unexpectedly, he answered with an insane cackle, "I did just as she asked me to, I made her strong, Sever!"

I reloaded the Longshock with Aegis bullets, and held it at the ready. Nefer's Is spiraled down from the sky, making yet another crater in the earth. I moved forward to stand on her chest, keeping her pinned in the hole until I finished talking.

"Why does she not breath? Why does she not bleed?" I asked him.

"Same reason I don't breath or bleed, Sever. Nano-machines, although hers are only active when in Valkyrie Unity."

"Valkyrie Unity?"

His voice took on a different tone, like a teacher to his pupil. "It's the next evolution of Valkyrie Trace. Instead of just downloading a pilot's techniques, they also download their personality. And she downloaded yours. Including your berserk mode. She's still only using her own skills, though."

I looked down at the wildly struggling Nefer. Although she was silent, her wildly flailing limbs told me that she was panicked, and doing everything she could do to get up. I shot a bullet at her, the explosion of air knocking her out.

"That won't last for long, you know," X stated, almost sounding bored.

"What do you mean?" I said, shooting another Longshock bullet at a suddenly revived Nefer.

"Did you know that IS choose their pilots? Even if the body itself was custom-made for the pilot, the IS will refuse to undergo 1st shift if it doesn't like her. In this case, the pilot will be able to use all of the equipment onboard the IS, but it will never evolve and it will never properly sync. It's the reason why mass-produced IS are inferior to personal IS. A personal IS has a core that accepts the pilot the body was made for. But even mass-produced IS have cores. It's not uncommon for someone to have a similar experience to you, where the mass-produced IS undergoes 1st shift and changes slightly. After all, it wasn't made for you."

"Your point being?" I shot yet another bullet at the pinned Nefer, her bouts of berserk consciousness having no regular period between them.

"Valkyrie Unity is a system codeveloped by the United States and Israel. Rather than forcing an IS pilot to download the techniques of a different pilot, the pilot themselves choose what they want to download. But, we use it a bit differently."

"How so?" I asked, emptying my last bullet and quickly reloading the gun.

"At the push of a button, we can force the pilot to ascend to Level Two and completely unite with the data, then control them. Put simply, it's like reformatting their mind and uploading it with whatever we want. Let me show you an example," he crooned, no doubt getting ready to press whatever button he was talking about.

"YOU WON'T ERASE NEFER!" I screamed, an odd combination of fury and lucidity in my head. I fired the rail gun, delivering my hatred to X via explosive steel round. I watched as the projectile crashed against the shield, but not exploding. It must've been a dud. Still, the shield bent under the stress of the shot, trying to bleed off it's supersonic velocity. Then, suddenly I fell backward. I saw a bright white light fly through the hole in the shield my projectile made and get in front of it. A shower of sparks exploded from where the slug hit the light.

When the bright light finally faded, I saw a pure silver IS, it's back facing me. Its arm guards were cylindrical, looking like it was clutching something. Its leg guards resembled giant boots, reaching all the way to the thigh and much, much larger than the arm guards. For a second, it reminded me of Cecilia's IS with its odd proportions. But the most outstanding feature was definitely the wings. The shoulder guards took the form of large hawk wings, spread elegantly in the night sky. The silver wings reflected and refracted the light of the stadium, sending small strips of glare throughout the arena. But then I noticed the gaping hole in the middle of the pilot's body. Just like before, a cloud of dust appeared from nowhere and repaired the damage as best it could, while the silver IS carelessly threw something behind itself.

I caught that something; it turned out to be my rail gun dud. I looked it over, rather than the blood that should have been on it, I saw more of that black dust on my steel explosive. I dismissed the rail gun, leaving the dangerous ordinance on the ground to take back later.

The silver IS descended slowly to the North runway, meeting up with a wheezing X, who had just emerged from the hanger.

"When we force Level 2," he hacked breathlessly, "It also forces the IS to undergo 1st shift."

The silver IS turned around, and I recognized the body of Nefer, her clothes now with a massive hole in her stomach. Her flesh had turned an odd shade of purple, almost unidentifiable so when compared to the IS pilot suit she wore. Then, the clothes on her crumbled away, exposing the rest of her flesh, now turned purple and featureless. No matter how closely I looked with the sensors, I could not see one follicle, one mole, one scar, and not even her nipples. From a distance, it looked like her skin had turned to plastic. Her head was still covered by that helmet, now silver and blue instead of black.

"What did you do to her?" I ground out, clenching my fists so tightly I could feel blood pooling in the cavities of my arms.

"Honestly, I don't know, but according to these reading she's dangerously low on shield energy and her vitals don't look too good either," he mocked mercilessly.

"Then leave her here so I can take care of her!" I yelled back.

"Oh, didn't you hear what Nefer said? She doesn't want to be here anymore! I'm going to take her back home to Hawaii, where she can get some...'help'."

"You asshole!" I used Ignition Burst to cover the distance between us in a second. But when I arrived there was nothing there. I slammed on the brakes, the stabilizers screaming in my IS. I looked around for them, but finding nothing. I finally looked up, seeing that the silver IS had grabbed X and flown him upwards.

"Toodles!" He cheerfully said, before the silver IS spun into the air and headed Southeast to Hawaii, but not before sending a shower of whitish-blue pellets of energy at me. I activated Grand Aegis, peeking through the narrow slits in my guard through the translucent barrier. I watched the shots converge on my location, rip through my Aegis and batter me countless times, ripping the parts of my IS off of my limbs and causing multiple burns on my skin. I laid there on the cold, damaged runway patiently waiting for the pain to subside. After a few minutes, I cautiously checked my body for broken bones and lacerations. The sheer volume of effective attacks had caused the IS to deplete itself of energy. Normally, the IS would've disappeared as soon as it hit 0, but something made it endure even past that number to protect me, sacrificing itself to take the brunt of the attack. I looked at my now ruined swimsuit, three large circles inscribed on my torso.

Somehow, that silver IS had the power to negate my Aegis. I recalled what Dr. Nebata had explained to me about 1st shift.

"A 1st shift usually happens when the sync rate exceeds 100%. At this point, the capabilities of the IS core and the needs of the pilot at the time cause the IS equipment to change to whatever the capabilities of the IS core can provide. Rarely, this also results in a one-off ability, a specialized ability that cannot be copied by any other IS in the whole world"

Valkyrie Unity Level two forced Nefer to go through 1st shift. Nefer, still in control of herself at this point, needed to defeat me, probably at all costs. So her IS created an ability to negate my own. The ultimate rejection.

I love Nefer, I promised to protect her. And, now she's gotten into something incredibly dangerous, her mind might have been overwritten with whatever data they had on me. If it was filled with my berserker mode and assassin techniques, then they would have another me! This was their plan! They raised me to be as ruthless and talented, then they used the Valkyrie system to copy it into other people. If they keep doing this, they would have an army of willing, bloodthirsty and incredibly strong soldiers, all based on me!

No, I can't let this happen. I can't let this army get made, and I have to rescue Nefer. With a mental command, I commanded the pieces of my IS to return to standby mode. The emblem on my gloves had dulled to a corroded brown, a visual sign of the status of my IS.

I struggled to my feet, the attack exhausting more out of me than I thought. Once again, I re-called out my IS, enduring the pain with all the fortitude within me. A turbulent 45 minutes later (unable to fly properly due to the state of my IS), I snuck into my room, pulled out a futon and fell into a deep sleep, not even bothering to change my clothes.

* * *

><p>Early the next morning, I was awoken by a loud crash outside my window. The loud sound reverberated in my head, not making my migraine feel any better. The mental stress from the night before had finally caught up to me, making me toss and turn during my sleep. Not only was I mentally fatigued, but I felt like my body hadn't rested at all. I threw the covers of the futon over my head, but that did nothing to block out the echo of the crash.<p>

"Hey, what are you doing in there?" Houki's voice called out to me.

"Well, I was sleeping just now," I dryly answered. "What the hell was that, anyways?"

"I have no idea," she grunted. In a more normal voice, she reminded me, "breakfast and attendance in ten, Seberu."

"Thanks," I groaned.

I pulled off the covers and stepped into the washroom to rinse off my face. Thanks to the mirror, I got a good look at myself. My face was haggard, large bags surrounding each eye. My short hair was flattened and bent, and in the middle of my torso were three fist sized circles of charred flesh, probably due to the swimsuit absorbing most of the heat. In any case, said swimsuit was useless, so I stole into Houki's luggage to grab her IS pilot suit. Made of a dark blue and stretchy material, the suit was supposed to be one size fits all, but Houki's generous talent had stretched out the material far more than I could fill. I tied knots in the straps near the shoulders to take up the slack, when I realized that Houki had another suit in her luggage. This was a brand new, completely white IS suit. I contemplated taking this instead, when I realized that maybe Houki had gotten it precisely because she stretched out the old one. It was probably sized correctly for her, too. So I left the white suit alone and put on my short pants. I had never felt comfortable in just that pilot suit and stockings, but the pants made me feel more secure for some reason. I put the casual robes (a yukata, I think it's called) and headed to the dining room for attendance and breakfast.

After excusing myself from the apparently regular "Eat-Next-to-Orimura" battles every mealtime, I entered the dining hall early to grab a corner seat at the table, closest to the doors. After a few minutes, the rest of the girls filed in, filling in the other chairs first before separating around into their various cliques and groups. I was surrounded by girls I didn't know, but it was definitely apparent that many of the girls were avoiding me. The seats across and directly next to me remained empty, even after the floor space was completely taken up. Well, I'm wasn't really surprised, I did hear those rumors in the bath yesterday. Now that I finally showed up to mealtime with a face like this, I'm sure the rumors would get exaggerated even more. Waiting for the food to arrive, I placed my tired head on the cool wooden table, just resting my eyes for a second.

Bam! The table shook with a person finally grabbing the seat next to me.

Ba-bam! Again, it shook with another person finally grabbing the seat across from me.

I waited for the third vibration, but I realized that I was at a corner, there were no other seats.

"Geez, what happened to you?" Laura asked, her voice coming from my side.

"Seriously, you don't look too good," commented Rin, her voice coming from in front.

"Fighting the forces of evil," I murmured, still reluctant to leave the cool table's surface.

"The forces of evil?" Laura echoed.

"Ah! She must mean that...you know, her cycle" Rin diagnosed, her voice dropping to a whisper at the last word.

"It hits you hard, doesn't it Sever?" Laura conspiratorially whispered, apparently sympathizing with my "pain".

"Something like that," I allowed, opening a sleepy eye and seeing the two girls' looks of concern for me. Well, at least I still have people who care about me still. "Hey, this is going to sound weird, but can I consider you two friends?"

The two girls looked shocked by the odd question, before puffing up their faces in anger.

"We are comrades, fellow warriors and rivals," Laura declared. "Of course we're friends, no matter what the rumors say."

"Well, I don't know about 'friends', per se," Rin began, but then she stuck out her tongue and continued, "but I'm not going to let some rumor bully around one of my future fighting partners."

"Well, that's friendship in my book," I concluded, before drifting off to sleep once more on that cool wooden table.

* * *

><p>When I woke up, Orimura-sensei was sitting at my table across from me, patiently waiting for me to awaken. She scooted a tray carrying a bowl of oatmeal, assorted fruit and orange juice in front of me and informed me, "It was all we could find. If you stay awake, lunch will be served in an hour."<p>

"Understood. So, what's up?"

"You tell me," she countered.

"...I failed. X escaped from the infirmary, rebuilt a Noctores Gospel and kidnapped Nefer." I didn't want Orimura sensei to know that it was actually Nefer who had helped X escape.

"How's your status?"

I took a bite of the cold oatmeal, probably a few hours since it was first made. "I've got a migraine, I'm tired, and quite beat up." I held up my right hand, showing Orimura-sensei the tarnished emblem on my glove.

"Do you need repair work?"

"How soon can it be done?"

"A week, maybe half if she's in a good mood."

"Not soon enough, I need to catch up as soon as possible."

"Why are you here, then?"

"I'm required to fall in for attendance remember? I took this time to come up with a plan, but it has a very small window of operation time available."

"Details?"

"I'll submit a full report after my success."

"Details, now," she demanded.

I proceeded to spill out everything I thought up on the 45 minute flight back.

"Firstly, in all the years I knew him, X has never lied to me. He had a habit of hiding the complete truth, but anything out of him always had an element of truth within it.

"When he told me he was going back to my home in Hawaii, he seriously meant he was going to return to our family home. It would be safe to bet that while we were at the Academy, he had converted the villa into a base. But since that is my home, I know the area around there better than anyone both in the street and on the rooftops. I stand a very good chance of infiltrating the compound secretly. Once I do, I can equip my IS and create havoc. Noctores Gospel is too big to fit in the house proper, while Deep Purple is barely short enough to be comfortable as long as I don't jump. I should have the advantage until they decide to blow up the house."

"You think they will destroy their own base?" Orimura-sensei asked, skeptical of this conjecture.

"It's par for the course. As far as I know, all military bases with research are equipped with a self-destruct system intended to completely destroy any weapons tech they have built. Any tech they can be recovered is tech that can be reverse engineered by the world, which leads to the tech being countered the next time they try to use it.

"The only reason why X would return back to my home would be to recover and to repair Noctores for the next attack. I'm sure he knows that I'm not dead yet, and that I'll be coming."

"So, he knows to expect you? Then you know you're basically walking into a trap? And chances are he thought of all of this as well! How do you know you will succeed when there's so many factors against you?" Orimura-sensei pressed, attacking all the weak points in my plan so far.

"All he knows is that I _am_ coming, not _when_. He saw my IS get mangled, and for normal IS technicians it would take probably a week or so to repair Deep Purple. I doubt that he would rush his preparations after visually confirming the near-destruction of my IS."

"What about us? He won't think you'd ask us for help? Or anyone else for that matter?"

"Do you really think the Academy will let us mobilize a task force to rescue a hostage from terrorists? If I remember correctly, we only take on missions of peace, or something like that. The Academy would relegate it to the UN, who would assemble the team. This would take a good amount of time, more than enough for X to fortify his base. As for anyone else, well, would you let me take anyone else?"

Orimura-sensei shook her head "no", but an angry scowl appeared on her face. She knew what I was going to do.

"The Academy won't officially help me, both he and I know this. So I'm going to unofficially strike out on my own with a heavily damaged IS and make a sneak attack. The 'when' is the most important part, if I don't leave soon, I'll miss my chance to sneak in."

"I can't let you go alone, take Laura with you. She's Germany Special Forces, she'll be a great asset to you," she allowed, but with a tinge of pride in her voice.

I shook my head, "That won't work. I need someone who can copy my free-running route perfectly and without an IS. I'm sure that X is scanning the sky over Hawaii for any traces of IS, since that would be the fastest way to get there. As soon as an IS is summoned, I'll be found out quickly, so most of the ground I cover will be on foot. If Laura can't keep up, she'll be a liability instead of an asset."

"How will you get there without an IS?" Orimura-sensei pointed out.

"According to the travel schedule I found online, I can stow away on a few frigates and make it to Hawaii in a couple days if the weather is nice."

Orimura-sensei slammed her hands on the table, then stood up calmly.

"Alright, there's a dozen things I still want to go over with you, but I'm running out of time. Three things, Sever. First, attendance is at 8 in the morning. Don't be late or I'll punish you."

"Roger, sensei."

"Secondly, do you remember what I told you earlier? The love you have for Nefer is a great strength, but you have other bonds with your fellow students and your teachers. Don't be afraid to ask for our help."

"...Roger, sensei."

"Finally, here." She handed me a small box. Inside of it was a watch. "This watch is a portable stealth device. While within it, you will appear invisible to radar, x-rays, infrared, and other scanning equipment that uses invisible light to track. In addition, it will cut off any electronic transmissions you may have, like a comm link or your AR. You can activate and deactivate it by pressing the button on the face, but be careful as it's only good for 8 hours. If you fly at Mach 1, you'll arrive at Hawaii in about 5 hours, that will give you 3 hours to complete the mission. It's all I can do for you, be grateful."

My jaw dropped open at this stroke of luck. "So, you mean instead of the 3 days I'd have to wait to infiltrate the villa, I can go now?"

She nodded as if it were the simplest thing to understand in the world. "I expect it back tomorrow, ok? That's experimental equipment, os if you get one scratch on it, I'll keep you in detention until you graduate.

"Roger."

"Then, you're dismissed for the day. Don't worry about class, I'll have Orimura make you a copy of the notes."

"Understood. But sensei, how am I going to get to Mach 1? I barely hit Mach .25 during Ignition Boost, and that's with a fully functional Deep Purple. We've learned in class that not even the AD can withstand the air resistance caused by going over a quarter the speed of sound."

"Hmm, so you're actually learning, then. Stick around a bit. I've got someone I'd like you to meet." She left the dining room, beckoning me to follow.

* * *

><p>"Why do I have to hide in the foliage?" I muttered, barely avoiding a rather flexible branch trying to whip me in the face.<p>

I was at the top of a cliff, making my way through the dense brush in order to meet a certain someone.

After following Orimura-sensei to her room so she could get changed, she lead me to a forest and told me to hide in here and make my way to the cliffside. Then she left, promising to return quickly.

Finally finding the cliffside, I dropped underneath a bush, luckily with no bugs living in it. I saw that Orimura-sensei had gathered theI looked towards the opposite cliff face, as a purple-haired figure slid down the side with a practiced grace, yelling "Yahoo!"

She leapt impossibly high into the air, maybe about ten feet, crying out the name of her target: "Chi-chan!"

Wait, didn't someone else call Orimura-sensei "Chi-chan?

I watched as this mysterious newcomer's trajectory sent her face into Orimura-sensei's bosom, or at least it would've if she didn't parry the headbutt. The newcomer recovered splendidly, then showed her mettle by attempting to grab her in an embrace.

"Hey, hey! I missed you, Chi-chan!" She shouted joyously. "Let's hug-hug! Let's confirm our love!"

Oy, oy, I didn't know she was into girls like that. I should be more careful around Orimura-sensei.

"You're annoying, Tabane." Orimura-sensei responded.

"And this is idiotic," I mouthed to myself.

I got up from my prone position and withdrew back into the forest. Seriously, she asked me to come to this meeting so that she could out herself as a lesbian? I'm flattered, but that was not necessary to know.

I had started to walk away, wanting to grab lunch before leaving for Hawaii. As I cleared the other side of the forest near the canyon, I stopped in my tracks when a giant "something" dropped from the sky. The canyon contained the crash sound well, the echo barely reaching me where I was. I quickly ran back to my hiding place to see a blood-red IS had landed.

They had lowered their voices to a volume I couldn't' hear, so I examined the red IS with my AR.

_Aka Tsubaki, 4th generation IS.

Ok, this was new. Before, I had never been able to scan IS themselves, I had to scan their pilot in order to get information about them. This was the first time a data sheet had been uploaded to this reference. I scanned the document curiously, noting it had been uploaded just 30 minutes ago.

_Aka Tsubaki, 4th generation IS.

_Built by the esteemed genius inventor Shinonono Tabane, Aka Tsubaki (Red Camellia, for those not in the know) is piloted by the ever cute and ever busty Shinonono Houki.

Great, now I got data sheets making me self-conscious about my chest. Did it really have to mention my roommate's breasts? I'm already wearing her stretched out stuff, do you have to further my shame?

Wait a tick, who the hell wrote this down, anyways? It's so informal, how did it ever get passed standards and practices? I kept reading through the data sheet, skimming over most of the text, all of it reading more like a biography on Houki rather than an explanation of the IS. Eventually, I found a small section of numbers at the end of the document.

_Shield Energy: 800

_Max Speed: Attack Form – 300 kph

_Speed Form – 1250 kph

_Armaments: Kawarare – Alternate fire shoots a large, crescent-shaped beam that can hit multiple enemies. Uses shield energy.

_Amatsuki – Alternate fire shoots lasers from the tip. _Sever – don't think too hard about it, just go with it._

_ _Sever, now you truly have all of our support. Use Aka Tsubaki's parts to get to Hawaii soon. This data sheet will auto-delete with out a trace 5 minutes after initial access. Godspeed._

So this is the someone she wanted me to meet.

* * *

><p>I walked back to the resort in order to grab a last bite to eat before my unofficial mission. It was an uninteresting lunch, just rice and fish and some other things that didn't exactly whet my appetite. I headed out the door in my pilot suit and short pants when I was accosted by two long furry sleeves around my eyes. I could probably guess who it was, so I grabbed the arms and threw Honne mightily over my shoulder.<p>

"Whoo, Sebu-chan, what's up?" she chirped in midair before righting her body and landing on all fours.

"Still starving," I told the cat-like girl. Well, even more cat-like than usual in that full-body kitty pajama set.

"Well, let's go out! I found this place that sells awesome takoyaki!"

"Never heard of those, but let's go anyways! Lead on!"

I followed the girl down to the beach and then through a maze of stalls before finding her destination. The store owner had a large scar down his eye, reminding me of the yakuza I saw in anime. But this isn't an anime, nothing to be afraid of.

"Hey brat, what do you want?" he demanded in an intimidating voice, rolling his r's like a gangster. This isn't an anime, this is real life, right?

"Takoyaki!" she cheerfully ordered, oblivious to the aura of violence this scarred man emitted. I tensed my body, ready to grab Honne's arm and run as soon as he showed a threat.

The man grumpily turned to his charge, tenderly caring for his good, evenly browning the balls on all sides. He chose 6 of them and placed them in a plastic tray meant for carrying these "takoyaki". He heaped sauce after sauce unto the balls, following with a sprinkle of bonita flakes. He handed them to the girl, who fished out a few coins from her pocket and placed them on the table. After counting the coins, he returned the proper change, flashing a crooked grin as he called out "Thanks for the business!"

Honne led me to an out of the way bench at the forefront of the beach. She sat down on the bench, patting the seat next to her. After accepting her offer, she handed me a toothpick and used it to skewer a steaming ball of food and plop it into her mouth. Steam emitted from her mouth as she chewed the incredibly hot morsel, her eyes watering in pain. It can't be so good she would go that far to eat them, could they?

A few minutes later, Honne and I were lying down as much as the small space on the bench would let us, greedily gulping great breaths of sea air in order to cool our burning mouths. Steaming takoyaki was definitely worth the pain.

After catching our breath, Honne opened up the conversation with an apology.

"I'm sorry, Sebu-chan, but I've been avoiding you for the past few days."

"Does it have to do with the rumors about me?"

"How did you know?" the ears on her pajamas somehow standing up with alarm.

Attempting to ignore the odd action, I told her the truth, "I overheard some girls talking about it at the baths yesterday. Until then, I had no idea that's how they saw me. Of course, in hindsight, I kinda agree with them."

"That's not true!" she shouted, jumping off her seat. "They just don't know the other side of you! You devote yourself to training, I've personally seen that! You're good at fighting and I've seen you run. It has this elegant rhythm that makes me want to follow you, but then you go jump over plants and stuff and do all that other stuff that just makes you cool! Then you turn around and start doing girly stuff like baking and cooking and stuff. It makes me feel kinda dull compared to you, but I still like hanging with you! I..I'm going to be stronger and stand up for you next time rumors like that come around! You won't hear things like that from me!"

I blushed hard, this was the first time I've ever heard someone sing my praises so much. Everything she talked about was the stuff I liked: running, baking, cooking; and she even declared that she'd defend me. This was a total personality shift from what I remembered of the childish girl. She was prone to being tricked and having her own pace, but now she'd going out of her way to stand up for me.

This was that strength that Orimura-sensei talked about, but this time my bond gave the other person strength! I get it now! I truly get the meaning of bonds! Not only do the bonds give me strength, but they give the other person strength as well. As the bond gets tighter, each person draws even greater strength! More bonds become more strength!

I hugged Honne with a fierce embrace, Honne returning the hug with equal fervor. I unabashedly let the tears fall from my eyes, "Honne, I'm so lucky to have met a friend like you."

"Oh, pshaw!" she giggled embarrassingly, red flooding her cheeks.

"Alright, I've gotta go, but I feel a lot better now. Thanks a lot, Honne!" I yelled, running away from the bench to the resort, streaming tears of happiness all the way.

* * *

><p>I stood on the roof of the resort, the AR telling me it was time for my departure. With the time zone difference, I would arrive in Hawaii at midnight today. The weather forecast called for a cloudy night, the perfect time for infiltration.<p>

Some desire deep in my heart caused me to voice my soul to the world, a final boast to myself. Words bubbled up from deep within my soul, like a song in my heart given form by my voice. No, I take that back. The words came from somewhere else, they resonated with my soul and changed. The tarnished emblem on my glove grew warmer and warmer as I spoke these words.

_I was the edge of a blade,

_A blade with one purpose and one destiny.

_I forged and tempered this edge,

_Withstanding pain and fear to succeed.

_But the blade has been forged anew, tempered by the bonds of many.

_The shape a shield, with a new purpose and a blank destiny.

_So as I answer their call, so you must answer mine!

_Come Forth!

The cold steel wrapped around my arms, loosely fitting on those limbs. A gentle hand lifted me into the air as more steel supported my legs, the metal creaking with every sway. The hand turned into two sturdy weights, the shoulder guards like an old man's feeble support. But most importantly, I felt no pain from equipping the IS. I don't know if it was due to my new inner strength or the extent of it's damages, but I could feel a quiet heat within it, my song igniting it's fire.

"Aka Tsubaki," I called out, and my legs turned into two large red turbines, the best way to describe Houki's leg guards. All around those guards were little fold-outs that created a field of energy I could use as control surfaces, the IS already downloading special software to use them from the part. I could feel the power stored within them as I gently levitated off the roof. I calculated a route to Hawaii, taking into account the Earth's rotation speed as well as the estimated max speed of these turbines.

With this new software, my weapons screen chirped a new function had been made available: Flight Aegis. Upon activating it, my body glowed with a skintight field of green-energy. This is what would protect me from the resistance: The Aegis would negate the drag, making supersonic flight in an IS possible!

With my course set and my stealth function activated, I flew at subsonic speed to about ten miles offshore before activating the turbines, speeding me to Mach 1. Once safely at speed, I trusted the IS to do any major navigation while I got a few more hours rest.

* * *

><p>Chapter End<p>

* * *

><p>Author's Endnotes:<p>

Whoo, that was fun! Ugh. More and more, I look at my dialogue and I keep thinking, I gotta learn how to talk right. Make it sound natural. Keep my characters acting like themselves. Well, I'm still having fun trying my best.

Two more chapters everyone! As always, please let me know how you like the story. After I finish, I'll go back and mess with it some more. I just hope I finish this before the Thief gets released on DFO :P

Blarg, I just realized the formatting is all messed up. I'll fix it in a bit. Stay tuned for next chapter of...Dragon Ball Z! Um..wait...Beyond the Black!


	11. Chapter 11 Subverting Myself

Ch. 11 – Subverting Myself at the Speed of Lazy

Disclaimer: This is a fan-based not-for-profit expansion of an awesome anime, Infinite Stratos. Created by Izuru Yumizuru and his/her team, all characters except the OCs belong to them.

I wonder if I'll stick with this or change it again. At least it sounds formal-ish.

* * *

><p>Chapter Start<p>

* * *

><p>"Sometimes, I wonder what that woman's thinking. I mean, do you really think we can trust her? Our IS specialist?" the teenager on the cusp of adulthood asked the old man across from her.<p>

"What does it matter?" the old man answered, casually sipping a cup of tea at the table they sat at.

"She comes up with the craziest contraptions. As if they ran on magic. Doesn't it make you wonder what's going inside her head?"

"As long as it works, it's fine with me."

"But you know physics and chemistry just as well as I do. But she can create things that should be physically impossible!"

"As long as it works, it's fine with me," the old man agitatedly stressed. "I felt the same way you did when IS were first introduced. At the time, IS were considered to be like that, 'magic'. Creating a semi-sentient suit of armor that would appear out of nowhere was physically impossible. It's one of the reasons the modern world struggled to accept IS until the White Knight incident. Of course, now that time has passed, we understand a lot more of the technology used to create IS. That's why people in your generation are fine with IS being everywhere, learning about xtradimensional physics and what not, but we in the older generation are satisfied just knowing that they work.

"Take a page from our book and instead of wondering why it works, think of a way how to use it."

"So, is that why you've basically have just been doing what the higher-ups tell you to do?"

"Precisely, I keep a mercenary personality when I deal with those guys, although this may be the first mission I volunteered for non-monetary reasons."

"The recovery of that girl, if you can even call her that?"

"You might as well, she's been a girl for long enough it might be more correct to call her a 'she'. But yes, when I found out she had entered IS academy and that we needed a supervisor, I volunteered and planned the whole thing from start to finish. The only thing I didn't expect was how strong she was in IS. Of course, that just helps us out even more."

"She's not that strong," the teenager pouted. "She went down in one hit."

"A punch to her stomach, right? Well, I would've aimed for the back of her head myself, because if she wasn't dropped with that attack, she would've killed all of us. When she's in berserker mode, it takes quite a bit of shock to get her out of it. And I don't think our deaths would be enough to snap her out of it, not like when she was younger. Especially since she hates me right now."

The teenager quickly clamped a fist to her stomach, the old wound acting up whenever she remembered that event. Long healed, she still suffered mental scars from that time long ago. She raised a fist to slam onto the table, only for it to be deflected by the thrown saucer of the old man.

"I'd rather you not harm my table, it's a fairly well-built piece of furniture."

"It's a rack used for torture, pulling the limbs out of the hapless individual tied inside, you sick man," she countered.

"And this one has tortured a great many people, my dear, hence the 'well-built' adjective. I'd rather keep it that way."

"You know, you're probably the only one in the world who would think to decorate the receiving room in a mansion with various torture devices," she accused him, waving an arm over the various equipment for administering pain.

"And they are all 'well-built' if you catch my meaning. Or would you like to test that characteristic of my treasures yourself?" he warned the girl, a disturbing smile forming on his face as he imagined the screams his teenaged guest could make.

"Whatever," the dejected young girl mumbled, turning away from the sickening smile to view the screen behind her. The old man took a handkerchief from his pocket, folded it into quarters and used it as a coaster for his tea. He then leaned forward in his seat to view the screen easier.

After fiddling with a few knobs, the teenaged girl pulled up a horribly low resolution recording of the events of the past few hours. Taken with a cell phone camera and shaky hands, the picture showed a purple-red blurry light land on the ground and disappear. Immediately after the landing, the video suddenly cut to static for a few seconds. After that break, the video showed a clear view of the starry sky. The teenager cut the tape at this point, commenting "I'm going to kill the guy who shot this without reporting it to us."

"You're a bit late, he died of internal injuries a short time ago," the older man reported, checking his PDA for updates on his personnel.

"You sure are meticulous," the girl praised him. "Do your flunkies mean that much to you?"

"Before he died, he made up 5% of the surviving forces. Now we've only got 19 people and 2 IS to defend against a bunch of IS-equipped former pilots that want to find their missing student."

"How soon do you think they will arrive?"

"It's 4 am here, that means that it's 11 pm in Japan," he calculated with the help of his device. "According to the reports, attendance is at 8 am, so we've got 8 hours to prepare, plus however long it takes for them to arrive. But if we're lucky the problem will take care of itself."

"How so?" the girl wondered.

"Under the guise of a US agent, I had requested their help with dealing with an unmanned IS that had 'gone out of control'. I told them it was entering Japanese airspace, but in reality it was sent to destroy IS academy as a test of its abilities. Seeing as I already set out the bait for the main prize here, I figured a proper field test of its abilities would be prudent."

"An unmanned IS? But the one you sent out had the new girl in it. Right? The silver one? Umm...Silvario Gospel, I think she named it."

"Exactly the point. Right now, all I know is that her 1st shift prioritized long-range and mobility, but it also created a one-off specifically to counter her sister's equipment. What I'm interested is in seeing what we can do with it."

"Well then, shouldn't I help her or something?" Her fingers danced on the table, itching in anticipation for another battle.

"She sees everything and everyone as an enemy to be destroyed right now. This includes allies, so joining will only hinder her."

"Well fine," she pouted. "What can I do, then?"

"You can finish summarizing those reports I gave you."

The teenager sighed, "You know I dropped out of school so I wouldn't have to do crap like this."

"You can't escape from paperwork, young girl," the old man laughed, then returned to his own tasks.

"Fine, I'm going to go grab a coffee then."

Without looking back, the old man nodded his assent. Obliqued by his body, the teenaged girl saw sparks fly out from whatever he was working on, the embers of electricity charring the wooden surface of his workbench. With a sigh, the girl exited the room, stopping by her room to put on a furred flight jacket and track pants over her black bikini. After that, she descended into the basement in order to enter the secret labyrinth of tunnels built into the estate in case of emergency. She maneuvered her way through a series of partially collapsed tunnels before finally reaching a small, heavy door, the shape and size of a manhole cover. Pulling a card from her pocket, she flashed it to a small receiver next to the door. Chirping its approval, a series of motors rolled the cover away, exposing the teen girl to the cool Hawaiian night. She quickly went through the door, which closed itself in 5 seconds. Turning around, she verified that the entrance was appropriately camouflaged by a call box on the other side of the wall. Once upon a time, the box was used to communicate emergencies by people without telecommunication devices. In this age, such a thing was unheard of, but the government saw no reason to remove the antiquated system. It served as perfect camouflage for the secret door due to that reason. After straightening her clothes, she emerged from under the overpass the secret door led to. Even though she hated to admit it, the girl was impressed by all the chaos and destruction the intruder had caused.

* * *

><p>The urban mini-city centered around the villa built on the small island of Kahoʻolawe had been turned into a war zone. If it wasn't for the impulsive reactions of a certain new recruit, the teenager was sure that the situation would've been easily handled by her and the more experienced members of the force stationed here. However, when an emergency communication warned them of a dangerous "ghost" that was picking off their stationed lookouts one-by one, she was ordered to command the entire squad to find the <em>lone<em> intruder by the old man's orders. At first, she was confused by the emphasis he put on "lone", but realized that this intrusion was probably one he expected. After issuing the order to evacuate non-combatants to the nearby island of Niʻihau, she called up orders for the forty-strong task force to assemble.

The girl was an IS pilot, but she was also a seasoned fighter who commanded the respect of the older men of the squad (and fulfilled the fetishes of the younger ones). Even in the dead of night, the task force quickly assembled in the yard of the villa they had commandeered as a base. She broke up the force of forty into groups of ten in order to quickly search the 12-mile wide city for the "ghostly" assassin, heavily armed in case of IS attack. However, shortly after separating, she started receiving reports of officers being picked off one-by-one, the assailant always retreating into the shadows of alleys and such before they could fire. There was no order to the attacks: the killer seemed to jump almost instantaneously from group to group. To add to the confusion, each officer was found with a 6-inch wide stab wound in their heart. To anyone with battle experience, carrying a blade that wide and moving that quickly was incredibly improbable, if not impossible, to move swiftly and quietly with a blade that big. Even if an assassin had been using an IS or even partial summoning to perform those kills, the sensors carried by each man would have located and warned them of the IS's approach.

The silent, inconspicuous, random, improbable, and kills had thrown the 30 or so survivors into paranoia. Without checking the contents properly, every suspicious shadow was met with a round of burst fire. The girl had allowed this, as all non-combatants had been evacuated. Anything left in the city was either the intruder or an idiot who couldn't follow orders. It was an acceptable risk for her to take.

Then, a nervous recruit shot his assault rifle into a suspicious shadow. The bullet flew through the dark alley, hitting one of her men at the other side. With that cry of pain, the soldiers whipped themselves into a deadly frenzy. The girl dove to cover as the now panicked men tore the city up, shooting at anything the resemble a ghost. Whether it be the shadow of a man projected onto a building or a ladies clothes hung out to dry, the men assaulted the suspicious events with copious amounts of bullets and explosives. Within hours, the panicked men had exhausted their ammunition, reducing the mini-city into a pile of rubble. It was then that the girl saw the assailant with her own eyes from the shadows of the rubble. A girl with short hair wearing a blue swimsuit and beige-white short pants, equipped with the white arm of an IS carrying an odd segmented katana.

It _was_ a partial summoning, however somehow the girl's proximity sensors did not detect the presence of the equipment. She watched as the men rushed the girl, collapsible batons extended or using the butts of their expended weaponry as improvised weapons. But as the girl knew, normal armaments were of no use against an IS pilot with a working IS. The girl equipped the rest of her IS, which surprisingly turned out to be purple and very similar to the Japanese Uchigane mass-produced IS. She watched as the men were cut down mercilessly, the long katana sweeping left and right, slicing through even the meatiest of bodies with ease. Only those lucky enough to be using heavy armaments as melee weapons were lucky enough to deflect the sword enough to sustain only minor injuries.

The girl in the mismatched IS turned her back on the girl hiding in the rubble to finish off one of these minorly injured men. The girl crawled out of the rubble before detaching her IS in standby mode, the form an innocuous badge on her uniform. She focused hard on the trinket, equipping the IS in a silent burst of light. Her uniform was shredded as her IS pilot suit was exposed to the world, a sexy skintight bikini. That light alerted the mysterious intruder to her presence, but it was far too late. She had charged the purple and white IS with an Ignition Boost, smashing her fist into the intruder's solar plexus at a tenth the speed of sound. Within the few seconds before impact, time stopped for the girl as she got a better look at the "ghost".

Close up, she recognized the hairstyle of the intruder, cut boyishly short but with a ponytail at the back, a lot longer and more orange than she remembered it being.

Close up, she recognized the face of the intruder, thin and mannish even grown up, but with the familiar blank white eyes signifying her berserker mode. This was caused by the nano-machines in her nervous system, but the only reason the eccentric IS technician in their employ gave for designing that change was a simple "It looked cool!"

Close up, she was able to compare her growth to the intruder, noting that the years had not been kind to her bust nor her hip development. Both were as flat as pancakes, compared with her sultry legs and moderate chest. As the intruder grew up, she must've resembled a boy more and more, the only sign of her femininity being her long hair.

Close up, she noticed that while the white arm was flawless at a glance, the rest of her IS was battered, probably beyond repair. The parts held themselves up with frayed wires, a miracle of technology that it was still responding to her actions.

Then time restarted its flow, the punch sending the intruder flying for miles. The girl pulled back her fist and inspected it. Between the joints of her mechanized digits she plucked out bits of metal, blood, and guts. Not only was her IS barely holding itself together, but her body was weak and injured. If this didn't kill her, it would knock her unconscious for quite a while. She decided to recover the body, but not after giving the order for any available survivors to escort the injured back to the villa for treatment. She flew over the desolate city, the destruction caused by her own men. As she traveled to the estimated landing location, she constructed a rigorous therapy program in her head as punishment for the foolish actions of her force. This would include heavy mental conditioning.

She finally made it the edge of the island, coincidentally where the IS calculated the force of the punch would send her. The moonlight outlined the disruption in the water where the intruder lay either unconscious or dead. She saw sparkling bits of metal from the disintegrating IS be carried off by the ocean, the waves gently rocking the mechanical suit back and worth and loosening even more of the debris. "X, the intruder has been subdued, will recover shortly. Intruder possessed an undocumented IS, " the girl reported in English after double checking with the AR in her IS.

"Not surprised, Madoka," X responded in the same language, "Her IS is an Academy project, there shouldn't be anything in private channels. Is it recoverable?"

Once again, she examined the IS, stripped down to its metal skeleton with the pilot resting uncomfortably in the middle. "Do we need a skeleton?"

"Bring it in anyways, its always good to have more materials. Please bring the intruder to the...'receiving' room," X suggested, not able to keep his excitement out of his voice. I'd like to meet the final part of our plan for world domination."

He closed the comm channel with that disturbing comment. With a sigh, Madoka hoisted the intruder onto her shoulder, dragging the IS carcass behind her like a trophy. On her shoulder, she could feel the light breaths of the intruder. She irritatingly tossed the girl onto a protruding spur of the IS skeleton. Blood seeped out of the impalement wound in her stomach, increasing as Madoka pulled the intruder off the spur. Madoka smiled at the intruder as her breath became ragged and heavy.

"See how you like it, Sever."

* * *

><p>The smell of coffee brought Madoka back from the reverie of her recent memories. Miraculously, a lone coffee cart had survived the ordeal, a tribute to the love of coffee her men had. Even under severe neurosis, they would not attack a coffee cart. She syphoned a cup of lukewarm Kona coffee, taking it black, as always. Throwing it back in a massive gulp, she syphoned the rest into a nearby thermos. She returned to the hidden entrance and opened it by swiping the card in front of the ancient call box. The box descended into the ground, exposed the round entrance the rotational door opened. She quickly crawled through, the door closing and disguising itself in 5 seconds. She made her way back through the labyrinth, discarding her outerwear and entering the receiving room clad only in her IS bikini.<p>

"I'm so glad we installed a heater in here," she commented to herself. She sat down at the rack, opening an old laptop and started working on her summary once again, taking shots of coffee to keep her awake.

After a few minutes, she slammed the reports on the floor, rising abruptly from her chair and complaining, "I can't read this anymore!"

"What's wrong?" X asked from across the room.

"I can't stand reading these 'story reports'!" she yelled, kicking the stack of papers into a disorganized mess. "You know, I hate Sever already, but reading this makes me hate the girl even more! She's like the unholy combination of Rambo, the Terminator, Clint Eastwood, Bruce Willis, and Wonder Woman! She's this huge Mary Sue that fails every now and again, but she's still an effing Sue!"

"What the hell are the words coming out of your mouth?" X questioned anxiously, not familiar with the terminology.

"She's perfect, she friendly, she says and does everything right. I mean she's like the most likeable character traits of male anime characters mixed together and blended horribly."

"Well, that doesn't surprise me in the least. Of course she sees herself that way, she's the author of those reports. It stands to reason she's going to exaggerate certain things. After all, I'm the one who trained her to do all of that."

"You trained her to do that? To write like a sue? How did you manage to do that? Wait, why would you even do that?"

"Well its because I was asked to, for whatever reason the IS specialist wanted. But before I get into how, I'd like to know what you think the perfect warrior is? What is the best attribute for this hypothetical person to have? Should he be strong? Should he be brave? No, the correct answer is pride. You see, a person who has no faith in themselves cannot achieve anything, but a person who believes they can do anything will usually end up doing that anything. Although having training to do that 'anything' ups the success rate significantly. In any case, a person with that kind of pride will struggle through anything to protect the pride, to fulfill his or her objective. And that is perfect for us."

The old man turned in his seat to face Madoka, who took a seat and prepared for the lecture to come. X had a bad habit of lecturing anybody when it came to a subject he was passionate about. Madoka figured he just loved the sound of his authoritative voice, so she let the aged man continue his tirade respectfully.

"That's why we trained the both of you the way we did. Somewhere in the back of your minds, we implanted a seed of pride in your psyche, carefully cultivating it through various trainings, positive reinforcement and negative punishment. For Sever, I had her write a diary. I encouraged her to exaggerate the events and had her reread it, over and over, eventually believing her own delusions. She gained the pride of a wolf, a lone creature who tricked others into letting down their guard. I don't know what your handler did, but he gave you a quiet pride, one that caused you to advance under your own power.

"However, we could only have one of you replace the original Sever, so we needed to find out who had the greater pride. That was through battle, setting our charges' bloodlust against one another to see who would become victorious, and who would crumble. In your fight with her, she tricked you into jumping into a final attack, impaling you on a protruding piece of metal. We thought you had died immediately, but I later found out you fought tooth and nail to heal.

"You recovered from your injury with an incredible desire to become better than that girl, so we brought you up to be a warrior instead of a lone assassin like Sever. Instead of isolating you and subjecting you to torture like Sever, you were allowed freedom and pleasure between trainings. Instead of deluding others to gain friendship and camaraderie like Sever, you commanded it with the natural charisma of a leader. Instead of being forced to learn everything at once from practical to menial skills, you were allowed to specialize and learn at your own pace. Instead of being held in bondage like Sever is now, you are currently the next head of the organization. You lead a much better life than she wrote about, so hold your head up, act like the better person and stop stabbing my precious specimen!"

Madoka dismissed the IS arm part holding the tactical knife that was currently stabbing the specimen held by the rack. Copious amount of blood emerged from the multiple lacerations, only to be stopped by the timely intervention of X holding the wounds closed.

"If you're still alive after all that, you're lucky to be so," Madoka cruelly whispered in the still unconscious specimen's ear. A thought crossed her mind, which she voiced to the panicking X, "Why is she still unconscious, anyways?"

"Something we didn't expect, although we're prepared for it. Somehow her mind is shut down. Simply put, we can't access the nano-machines in her brain."

"Valkyrie Host?"

"The seed of pride we implanted in your heads," X clarified, pulling off his now bloody outfit and throwing it to the side. Now naked except for his underwear, he sat back down at his desk and started tinkering again, the object obscured by his gnarled back. Madoka averted her eyes, focusing on the disorganized stack of paper she kicked over earlier. Figuring anything was better than seeing X nearly nude, she focused on reordering the papers in order to continue her assignment.

X continued with the explanation, "The nano-machines were programmed to trigger pleasure whenever we wanted you to. In the both of your cases, whenever you showed signs of pride. Just like Pavlov's dog, we used this to train your pride. However, they also allowed us to access the mental state and memories of their hosts. And that's the problem. The nano-machines can't allow us to access something that doesn't exist."

X left his seat to cross the room to the monitor behind Madoka. Madoka cringed, hiding behind her hands in order to _not_ gain the ability to describe X's physical features accurately.

"Here, take a look at this," X ordered. Madoka listened to the footfalls fade as X returned to his workspace on the other side of the room. She chanced a peek at the screen, displaying a picture of the brain from four views.

"Is this supposed to be a monochromatic image?" Madoka guessed.

"Nope, it's poly. Right now, there is absolutely no brain activity in her head."

"So, she's in a coma?"

"No, even someone in a coma has occasional spikes of mental activity. This is an artificial phenomenon. Since we can't access her mind, we need to use an alternate method to program the Valkyrie Unity: Level 3. And that's the summarization you're working on."

"Fine, but how is a summary supposed to give us Sever's abilities?"

"Firstly, stop thinking about the 'how'," X scolded, turning around to shake a nagging figure at the cowering Madoka. Suffice to say, she had a healthy dose of fear for his visage. "It works, so let's go with it. Secondly, as I said before, right now we need her pride. The more information you put into that summary, the more accurately the Valkyrie realizes the pride."

"This is for that girl you sent as a distraction, the one you implanted both DG cells and Valkyrie Parasite nano-machines?"

"Yes, the technician believes that at the very least, that information should be enough to trigger a 2nd shift within that girl. If that happens, nothing short of a miracle will save the Academy."

"Alright then, what's the very least? I'd like to finish soon. Either that, or give me permission to vent my frustration on the cause of all of this," Madoka attempted to compromise with the old man.

"Hmm, for now let's start with the details of any fights she's been in, including training spars or fights she's witnessed. It doesn't matter if she won, lost, or went into berserker mode, all that matters is how she felt afterwards. In fact, anytime she feels a desire to get better, or get stronger, or train harder, include that into the report. Make sure you put in as much details as possible, but get rid of the fluff she uses to psyche herself up. I don't need my Valkyries boasting about their accomplishments or anything like that."

"Hmm," Madoka murmured, picking up a particular page from one of the more recent reports. "What about 'But now, he was a feeble man. Whatever vices he indulged him had taken from him his posture, his health, and his strength, judging by the way he feebly hobbled away from me.' Since this is a win for her, I figure it's kinda an important detail to note. Especially since this influences how she treats you during the battle...

X struggled with his own pride, wrestling over whether this accuracy was something his spirit could endure. "I'm an old man now, I have no need for pride any more," he justified his decision. "Include whatever you see fit."

Madoka pleasantly hummed to herself when the printer near her suddenly roared to life, noisily printing out a stack of papers in fading black ink. Madoka lamented the fact that while most of the finances they had went to IS and military actions, not enough went to other needs, in this case current-generation computers and equipment. _One of the problems of being a terrorist group_, she thought. She pulled the stack of papers and read aloud the first line: "IS Chapter 10 – Treading the Line Between T and M. God, what's with her naming sense?"

"They must've finished decrypting the transmission we intercepted a bit ago. Its good to have trapdoors in their network, huh?" X commented offhandedly. "Looks like you got even more material to add to the summary, aren't you glad?"

"...aren't you glad?" she mocked X in a higher pitch of voice, mimicking his authoritative tone almost perfectly.

After ten minutes of reading, she threw the stack of papers in the air, screaming "It's the worst one of the bunch!"

X chuckled heavily to himself, the noise an oddly guttural sound from his stomach. However this quickly turned into a gasp of horror as Madoka re-summoned her arm and stabbed X's precious specimen over and over in the stomach.

"Hey! Stop that! Don't kill her! Even if she is brain-dead I can still use Sever for something," X pleaded, throwing his body over Sever's bleeding stomach protectively. "I don't have any more blood to transfuse into her!"

* * *

><p>The familiar field expanded from horizon to horizon. The skies above were filled with dark clothes, angrily raining down oppressive rain throughout the area. Dotting the landscape were dozens of headstones, markers for the deceased. At the center of this graveyard was a mausoleum. Enshrined within the tomb were four child-sized coffins and one grave keeper. The grave keeper walked back and forth with a push broom, sweeping out any trash and debris that dared dirty those halls. The grave keeper looked to be no more than 15 or so, wearing only a dark blue women's swimsuit with a cup size much too big for her. She had tied the excess slack into two knots that rested between her collarbones. She had short black hair cut like a boy's half her age, however she had a long ponytail tied behind her reaching her bottom, artificially colored orange. She was also wearing beige-white short pants, creating an outfit completely unsuited for her current activity. However, underdressed as she was, she looked to suffer no agony or discomfort form the colt atmosphere. Under closer inspection, one could see that her clothes were ragged, as if they had been fatigued by age or overused. The stomach of her swimsuit suffered the worse of it, torn into tiny ribbons and shreds of fabric.<p>

The girl pulled out a small brush from nowhere and meticulously dusted each and every corner and crevice of the mausoleum with great care, focusing intensely on the small coffins. After immeasurable time, she left the mausoleum in order to clean the rampant weeds that had sprung up around the graves. The pricks and thorns of the weeds cut into her skin, but she showed no discontent or pain from the injuries. Another close inspection revealed that the small wounds she had quickly healed. Without paying attention to this miracle, she continued her errands, circling around the graveyard and repeating the task for each and every gravestone.

Hey, hey! You there with the reeds.

No answer.

Reed girl! Grave keeper girl! Swimsuit and short-pants girl!

Still no answer.

What are you doing? Don't you have anything to do? Don't you have anywhere to go? Why are you wasting your youth here?

Again, no answer.

Suddenly, lightning erupted from the sky, striking the mausoleum. The strike of electricity caused a corner of the mausoleum to break off, exposing the coffins inside to the rain. The grave keeper girl abandoned her current task, carrying her bundle of pulled weeds. I saw as she placed the bundle of plants in the space of the broken corner, blocking out the infinite rain. She then picked up the fallen piece of architecture with ease and stuck it back into place, displacing the weeds put there earlier. The entire bunch fell inside the mausoleum, but there was no more rain dropping onto the caskets anymore. The girl ran inside of the mausoleum with a panicked expression on her face, abandoning her earlier task of de-weeding the graveyard. She pulled a rag, again out of nowhere, and proceed to dry off the soaked coffins. Again, after immeasurable time, she finished re-cleaning the mausoleum, only to find the graveyard outside had once again become overgrown with weeds. Without even a squeak of despair, she set about to fulfill her task. Just then, another lightning strike broke the same corner. Again, with a panicked hurry she repaired the mausoleum with the weeds in her arm, only to emerge a third time after immeasurable time. An eternal cycle.

* * *

><p>Simultaneously, Madoka called out "X!" as X swore "Damn!". He then angrily swept all the equipment off his desk, creating a staggered series of crashes that irritated Madoka's ears. Madoka had hardly ever heard the man throw a tantrum like that. Even when things surprised him, he usually had kept a cool head. Except when it concerned Sever, she noticed. Within the horribly written stories, she had more than enough evidence to prove that something about the brain-dead girl drew some kind of emotion from him. It was difficult to place, but whatever emotion it was caused him to act very out-of-character. She decided to keep quiet until X finished his tantrum, but watched his every move so that she could evade any attempt he made to vent his own frustration on her.<p>

"Why? I was so close! I almost had it!" He complained, flailing his arms every which way in the most open space he could find. He kept shouting words to that effect until he finally winded himself, collapsing back into his seat.

"What's wrong?" she ventured, not allowing herself to get too close to the aggravated guy.

After taking a minute to calm himself down, he exited the room, handing Madoka a box of mystery the size of her fist with a pushbutton and various knobs on the sides, all without labels. She examined the box, unable to make heads or tails of the thing.

When X returned, he had washed off the dried blood on his skin and, more importantly, finally started wearing clothes again. Madoka heaved a sigh of relief, finally able to look him in the eye again.

"You too, right?"

"I didn't mess with it," she admitted. "I returned it to your desk."

"Here, try this." He recovered the box, offered her the pushbutton, an unspoken invitation to use it. So she pushed it.

Nothing happened.

"This time look at the monitor," he suggested.

Madoka did so, pressed the button and watched as the brain image flashed, a dot of color brightening the middle of the brain.

"According to the specialist, you defeated Sever when she was at max sync and in berserker mode. Before the IS disintegrated, it must've trapped Sever's mind within IS subspace. I'm sure you've experienced the effect."

The girl nodded, an experience all IS pilots had when they hit max sync for at least a moment or two. Even though percentages of over 100% were measurable (the extra percentage representing the approximate ratio of future thoughts being the same), max sync was a theoretical number off the scale of numbers. All that the world knew about the phenomenon was that the pilot enters IS subspace upon achieving max sync and that it was thought to be the key to unlocking 2nd shifts.

"Since IS are self-aware and semi-sentient, it's safe to assume the IS sacrificed itself to protect Sever. The specialist sent us this device, saying that a certain combination should break through the protection and allow us to access her mind, but it's a truly exasperating task. Alright, I'm calling this a fruitless endeavor. Let me help you write your summary, Madoka."

"How about we just switch?" she suggested hopefully. She did not like reading Sever's story reports.

"That's a lost cause," he spat out bitterly. "That just means we'll have to download what Nefer has in her mind right now and combine it with this summary."

"What will that do? Are you sure its better than just figuring out the box?" Madoka wondered, but still dejected due to the rejection of her offer.

"This is a sure thing," he explained. "How well do you know the Valkyrie Unity system?"

"Not well enough, just what you let slip during your proxy fight with Sever," she sighed, ready for yet another lecture. She was beginning to feel like the old man had specifically asked for her assistance with the mission just so he could start lecturing her like he did after Sever had left.

"The final level of Valkyrie Unity overwrites the emotions in the Valkyrie. It's better to have a direct transfer between the Host and the Valkyrie at this stage, but right now she's been overwritten with all of Sever's skills and her personality. If we include her pride, we'll have an incredibly strong assassin under our control, one who seeks victory no matter what the cost. If we copy that data into other IS pilots, we can have an army of these types, each just as brutal and effective as Sever."

"You know, she's really not that brutal," Madoka argued. "She preyed on our fear and tricked us into destroying the city, rather than doing it herself."

"The fact she did so proves my point," countered X. "I'm willing to bet while she assassinated your task members one-by-one, she was just following the training I gave her: when fighting one-on-many, isolate the commanders and create panic. But after your team razed the city, she entered berserker mode to clean up, probably by will. I doubt berserker mode would be able to do those precise assassinations.

"Now imagine an entire team of them, deployed all over the world controlled by you. Simultaneously, multiple targeted locations would go crazy searching for an elusive assassin, proxy trained by yours truly, who could switch into a bloodthirsty barbarian at the push of a button. The barbarian, for the sake of her pride, would continue fighting with all her strength and skill, taking out dozens more! If we needed more, all we have to do is kidnap an IS compatible girl, force them into 1st shift with Valkyrie Unity and we'll have more of them at the push of a button! No, we can equip them the same way as we did Patient Zero and maybe replicate the exact same 1st shift! Can you imagine the damage and disorder we would create? With this army of Sever copies in Silvario Gospels, we'll rule the world."

"Alright, calm down X," Madoka soothed the now hyperventilating X. "Before we do that, we need to sort through this disappointment of a story."

"All right," X agreed after catching his breath. Together, the two poured over Sever's inflated ego delivered through carefully written prose, brutally shredding it to scraps and organizing it into useful data. Their project completed and bodies suffering from fatigue, they departed for their rooms, Madoka seeing X to his bed before retiring to her own.

* * *

><p>Resting in her bed, Madoka found that she couldn't quite get to sleep. A certain something was nagging her in the back of her mind. With a jolt, she ran to X's bedchambers and shook the aging man awake. She led him back to the receiving room where she tuned the monitor into a streaming signal from a satellite.<p>

"Approximately 30 minutes ago, 12 AM their time, your distraction engaged 5 personal IS in battle," she reported. "As this was not an official IS Academy deployment, our spies had no idea of this event. They've remained in battle for these thirty minutes, oh, and it seems that your distraction has just lost a wing," the girl observed, watching the appendage and its owner splash into the sea.

"Activate Level 3!" X ordered in his loudest shout yet. Quickly, Madoka fed the data into the machine their specialist had made for this purpose. Then she slammed a fist on the button to activate the machine. Instantly, the room filled with a bright, pale blue light, but Madoka couldn't tell whether it was the machine or the monitor was creating it.

The room filled with X's booming laughter as X's distraction, Silvario Gospel, proceeded to 2nd shift.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Ooh, looks like I bit into 12 a bit.<p>

First off, I'd like to thank the reviewers who gave me praise for my work. It made me happy to hear your comments and they really meant a lot to me.

Secondly, I'd like to thank the reviewers who called Sever out on being a Mary Sue. I realized it myself when I got to chapter 2, but by then I already had a tragic backstory to justify her Sue-ity. But your reviews proved me wrong, she's still a damn Sue. Well, it made sense to me, so I guess I gotta practice more to have you guys see my side of her. But your reviews pushed me to think up some grand way to keep this interesting, and I came up with this! What do you think? It doesn't excuse the first ten for being Sue-y (ten in particular) but I feel like I can finally get back on track with the main story after this Sue thing out of the way. Oh, also I'd like to thank expressly thank Daiske for his line about Sever being a combination of famous people. I couldn't help but use that line almost word for word.

Alright, one more chapter. Let's make one final twist!


	12. Chapter 12 Did I Really Kill The Sue?

Ch. 12 – A Final Goodbye, Did I Really Just Kill the Sue?

Disclaimer: Disclaimer: This is a fan-based not-for-profit expansion of an awesome anime, Infinite Stratos. Created by Izuru Yumizuru and his/her team, all characters except the OCs belong to them.

Yeah, I'm just that lazy.

* * *

><p>Chapter Start<p>

* * *

><p>Finally, the lightning stopped in that rainy field. After countless repetitions of the same tedious chores, the girl finally finished her chores.<p>

Are you finished?

Aimlessly, the girl stared off into the distance. As if looking for something in the infinite horizon, she swept her eyes to the left and the right.

What are you looking for?

The girl crossed to the other side of the graveyard to repeat the same task.

Have you found it yet?

She returned to the mausoleum, then laid down on the cold, wet floor. She held her position carefully, not allowing the cold to illicit even one shiver from her body. She furrowed her brow in concentration, causing her boyish features to grow ever more masculine.

Where is this?

"...my soul..."

She talks! She responds!

"...hurts..."

No, she just thinks aloud.

She got up off the cold floor, but she kept one hand over her bosom, as if her heart might burst out at anytime. She staggered to the corner, punctuating each step with a sharp gasp. Her eyes were shut tight with pain, feeling for the wall blindly. Upon finding the corner, she slouched against it, using both walls as support for her weight. The girl's eyes opened one last time. They gazed upon the sight within that tomb and sealed the vision of those four small coffins within her memory, a single tear of regret streamed from her eye as she relinquished the life within her soul to the boundless expanse of the world

* * *

><p>"Hey!"<p>

A strong, deep voice resounded throughout the tomb, and the girl somehow found the strength to reclaim enough life to respond to that voice. Hey eyes were dyed a black void, but there remained a tiny spark of life within one iris. Like an ember threatening to burn out, she cast that one good eye about, attempting to find that rousing voice.

"Down here, stupid!" the voice insulted the girl. The girl looked down at the ground, but showed no outward signs of surprise when she saw a face there. Arguably, it was a very simple face, one a child might have drawn as a doodle. But seeing the face seemed to make the girl happy. A second ember lit up in her other eye, her desire to live once again returning.

"Seriously, I leave for a few hours, and you're about to extinguish the last shred of life you kept. What would you ever do without me guiding your way?" the face complained, furrowing it's own cartoonish brow in irritation. But eventually, the face relaxed, beaming a gentle smile at the girl, "But I'm happy that I'm not too late.

The pleasing face teased a soft giggle out of the girl. The twin embers in her eyes expanded, filling the void in her eyes with quiet light and heat.

"Good, then it's about time we end this lie."

The face rose up into the air, dragging the floor up along with it. Surprised, the girl who reclaimed her life watched with rapt attention as the mass of rock lost its form and became a gelatinous blob with the texture of slate. Slowly but surely, the rock took the form of a human, a teenaged boy similar in appearance to the girl, but with larger body mass due to gender. His hair was black and short like the girl's, but he had a shorter ponytail that was kept unbraided, allowed to flow free. He wore a dark blue tank top with beige-white cargo shorts, as if purposefully trying to mirror the girl in his own style of dress. At a glance, the two looked liked long-lost siblings, if not fraternal twins. But there was a difference in the two's expressions.

The girl, although having her life recovered, still looked tired and despondent, large bags under her eyes. The boy had eyes full of fury and irritation.

"Hey! Wake up! It's time to get out of here!" he declared, walking over to the girl to drag her out of the mausoleum. However, the girl just slapped his hand away. Again he tried to take her by the hand, but again he was rebuffed. A third time he tried, a third time he failed.

"What are you doing? We have work to do! Let's get out of here!" he ordered the girl.

"NO!" Her voice echoed throughout the small room, even louder than the lightning strikes that stopped so long ago. The rain stopped as if paying tribute to her declaration of will. Having underestimated her will, the boy changed tactics, asking her politely as if nothing rude had just happened, "What's keeping you here?"

"...cleaning..." Her voice had returned to that soft, weak whisper. As the softness in her voice returned, so had the rain, filling the background with the echo of pitter-patter.

"Cleaning after what?"

She pointed to the coffins in front of her, than waved her arm outside indicating the graves outside. "...my sins..."

"So, you did all this in the short time I've been away? Geez, you're efficient," he commented, sounding honestly impressed for this tragic act.

It seemed that the girl had took an affront to this apathetic response, and so marched up to the boy, taking the collar of his shirt in hand and pulling down with all her weight. The boy bent down as to not stretch his shirt, coming face-to-face with the suddenly assertive girl.

"...do not make light of my sins..." she warned him.

"Fine," he backed off, "then what are you doing about these sins of yours?"

"...cleaning...maintenance...protect..." she listed.

"Looks like you finished doing that," he observed, noting that the girl's completion of her stated tasks. "Now what?"

"...life...for life...will give mine to appease the dead..."

At her words, the mausoleum disintegrated, scattering into dust to be washed away by the rain. Then, the graves all around her erupted in a showed of dirt. Men in military uniforms rose from their rest, blood splatters on their clothes giving bone-chilling clues how they ended up in those graves. They were all armed in some manner, some wielding collapsible batons, some with large firearms. At first sight of the tired-looking girl, those armed with guns attempted to shoot her; however the men did not look surprised as a collective empty click sounded through the field.

"...exactly like before...but no IS..." she breathed, resigned to her fate. She started walking forward, hands spread wide in a show of non-violence. She was met with the man who first charged her. His face was contorted with rage as he swung down his baton at her fragile-looking neck.

* * *

><p>"10 am our time, 5 am tomorrow, their time, I received visual confirmation via satellite and instrument confirmation of Silvario Gospel 2nd shift's total system shutdown. I'm reading zero response from neither Valkyrie Parasite nor DG Cell nano-machines. Bravo team has been sent to recover the body under the guise of US Special Forces," a sleep-deprived Madoka reported to X, who rested in his chair.<p>

"Hmmm, looks like we need the real one after all," X commented. He pressed a button on his chair and pulled out a gun-like device. Although it had a trigger like a normal gun, it had no actual muzzle for either a bullet to exit, nor could it hold enough energy to shoot a laser with any real power to it.

"Is that the thing you gave to the Chasers?" she asked, laying her head on the console, taking care not to press any buttons or switches.

"Yes, but this is the one without the energy bugs," he explained with a yawn. "Just like the others, this one uses the AS ID field to reverse the slow-healing effect Valkyrie Host gives it owner. In other words, if the Host is using an IS, this light will cause the nano-machines to decay the body in a matter of minutes.

"You know, this is probably the first time I've mentioned this to you isn't it?" He asked the girl offhandedly.

Now on guard and fully awake, Madoka cautiously ventured, "Yes?"

X leaned into her face, giving the alert but fatigued girl an eyeful of his gaunt face.

"Remember well that I have this. And it doesn't require an IS AD to work, it just accelerates the effect."

With that, he withdrew from Madoka, pushing a button on the console. The rack that his precious test subject was stretched upon rose to a vertical position through a mechanism installed in the floor.

"Can you please use your IS to grab the glass cylinder in the garage and place...it...here..." X's voice faded as he realized he had scared his assistant away with his flippant threat. She must've had left as soon as he took his eyes off her. "Well, that's a professional for you, even if she is only a teenager. Even so, I really should get some sleep. I'm starting to miss my timing for these kind of things. I should've scared her off after I had her set up the experiment for me," he admonished himself with a smile.

A half-hour later, he had converted the receiving room into an improvised laboratory, complete with lab coats. The raised rack had been incapsulated by a tinted glass cylinder and sealed by rubber on the bottom. He had also sealed any holes in the floor caused by the rack's movement mechanism. This made a watertight translucent container into which he poured a viscous liquid from a hose. He filled up the giant impromptu test tube all the way the top, completely submerging his test subject. As the liquid level rose, the clothes the sample was wearing corroded away on contact. The dark blue bathing suit and off-white short pants became clumps of aqueous, settling on the floor. Even her gloves dissolved, however the corroded emblem on her right hand somehow bonded itself to the sample. The sample's hair immediately fell off, disintegrating into specks of dust suspended in the tank. With the sample's body exposed to the world, X was able to closely examine the faded scars on the subject's stomach, evidence of the recent trauma inflicted by the moody Madoka. He took out an old tape recorder, one that used archaic magnetic tape to record sound.

Just before he started using it, a call was forced through onto his monitor without his acceptance. Figuring there was only one person who would do that, he turned on the recorder and let it go, probably the only way he would be able to have a record of this conversation.

"Halloa, halloa! Techie T reporting in! Techie T wants to know if we're ready to go!" the person on the other end greeted X in Japanese with a peppy fist in the air. The screen displayed a woman in a hideously flamboyant butterfly mask. The mask was so huge that it covered both ¾ of her face and the majority of whatever hairstyle she had. She wore a simple dress without any distinct marks or symbols, adorned with an apron. Except for the mask, she looked like an ordinary woman. However, X knew that all of this was a way for the specialist to keep her identity secret, even from the other members of Phantom Task. Even X had not gotten underneath that mask, nor had he ever successfully tricked the woman into dropping her childish persona.

This was the IS specialist who invented the impossible, from the Valkyrie Unity system X was currently using to the gun device X had threatened Madoka with for laughs. Any scientific theory, no matter how obscure, could be explained and dumbed down by her to the point even a muscle-headed grunt could understand, although thankfully for X chances to use that ability were few and far between. X found it much easier to control stupid and uninformed mooks, especially when their focus was either money or women.

"Techie T," X ground out in Japanese, abhorrent to address the intelligent but eccentric woman by such a childish name. "Let's make this short: I really don't want to talk to you any longer than I have to. After all, I haven't gotten any sleep since -"

He was interrupted by Techie T's earsplitting howl that reverberated throughout the room and cracked the thick glass.

"Ecki-chan doesn't want to talk to me! He hates me! I...I hate Ecky-chan! Icky Ecky! Icky Ecky!" she screamed, the slots in her mask leaking hot, heavy tears.

"Alright, alright!" He cooed her after seeing the effect her howl had on the glass chamber. As he attempted to reinforce the cylinder with sealant, he attempted to calm the girl down, promising, "Sorry, sorry, if you quiet down I'll send you some more of those macadamia nut cookies you like so much."

Abruptly, the girl stopped crying, and with shining eyes crooned "Yay~I get cookies!" She did a little dance in place while X gave his work a once over to make sure it wouldn't break. He turned just in time to catch a glimpse of the woman's back as she spun around, catching what he thought was the IS Academy emblem.

"I didn't get to see that dance, could you show me again, Techie T?" he said as sweetly as he could.

"Sorry! One dance per customer!" she cackled.

_Damn, _he swore internally. _She caught on. Well, whatever. Time for real work_.

"Techie T, I'm ready to start the experiment," he reported, moving out of the way so she could see the sample.

"Ooh-hoo! It's a naked girl!" she giggled. "Ecky-chan, Hentai!" She covered her face with her eyes, but left a conspicuous hole between her fingers to peek.

X ignored the comment, focusing on the gun in his hand. "Techie..." he prodded.

"Ok, ok! Time to work, then I get snacks, ok?" she asked, but X knew whatever he said would be ignored. He payed rapt attention as Techie T rapidly listed to him the procedure for the experiment.

"Use the nano-reverser to make the implants show, it will take about 5 hours without an AD to speed up the effect. Then open the lid on each implant. Use any wire to short the exposed terminal inside to the Valkyrie Unity control box. There's a diagram so you know which implant goes to which terminal. After that, leave the rest to me!" she ordered, raising a thumb to her chest with that last sentence.

"Chao!" and with the last word, she left as quickly as she intruded. X checked the tracking software he always had on for emergencies, but the logs have been wiped cleaning. In fact, they detected no forced intrusions within the past week. Not only was she a genius inventor, but apparently she was an expert hacker as well. No matter what third-party software or custom products he commissioned, Techie T found some way to erase her presence from every modern method of tracing her. However, X had the experience of age behind him. He made another mental note to set up an analog video camera for next time.

Picking up the recorder, he fast-forwarded past the inane beginning of the conversation to the succinct instructions he would need to complete the experiment. He voicing the experiment to himself, recording it in the recorder. This was a practice he had long ago started back in college that was incredibly useful to him, particularly during science lab.

"Experiment 627, Purpose: Direct Hacking of Host's Brain Through IS Academy Implants, Final Attempt for Full Valkyrie Unity usage..

"Background: Project Valkyrie Army, Patient Zero 'Nefer' achieved two out of three goals: Forcing 1st and 2nd Shift via Valkyrie Unity Level 2 and 3 respectively, and proof of concept for limited AI control. Destruction of IS Academy failure due to unplanned 2nd Shift evolution by Orimura Ichika, plus unprecedented teamwork from the six personal IS pilots. Due to loss of Patient Zero 'Nefer', Valkyrie Unity must be used with Host Zero 'Sever'. Host One, 'Madoka' is judged to have insufficient battle lust for objectives and is more valuable alive and in operation. However, due to lack of Host Zero's brain activity, forced intrusion of the subjects mind via IS Academy AR implants is required for use. Successful experiment should lead to perfect Level 3 Valkyrie Unity plus full AI control of future Patients, successful conversion to be named Valkyries.

"Procedure: Use 'nano-reverser' to corrode the organs, leaving the skeleton, implants, and neural tissue in suspension fluid. Without the AD function to accelerate, reversed Valkyrie Host should corrode the organs it maintains, with the exception of aforementioned body parts. Estimated time to completion: 5 hours.

"Next, connect implants to Valkyrie Unity controls via shorted terminals. Contact Techie T, allow her to take over experiment."

With a record of the plan safely on the tape, he checked it to make sure it recorded properly before retiring to his room.

* * *

><p>"No!" A shrill voice screamed through the air, it's owner's foot smashing into the face of the assailant and pushing him back painfully. No worse for the wear, the man got up, but got an instant nosebleed as he got a good look at his assailant. The newcomer was a busty young girl, a full head shorter than the mopey girl and the irritated but worried boy next to her. She had long blond hair and curvy hips, but her hips had been tempered with hard, rough exercise as if she had just started intense training after a lifetime of lethargy. Her fingers and hands were dainty, fragile things, but her feet were rough and calloused, more evidence of her recently hard life.<p>

"You can't die yet, Ate!" she wailed, burying her face in the mopey girl's chest, her tears reaching places the rain couldn't hope to ever reach with that swimsuit in the way.

"...what...what...What are you doing here, Nefer?" The mopey girl shouted, throwing off her aura of weakness and standing strong in the face of the newcomer.

"Same to you, Ate! Why are you here? Why are you letting yourself get hurt by these people?" the girl asked, cutting straight to the heart of her worries.

"These people..." She trailed off, not able to look the naked girl in the eye.

The naked girl looked back at the men behind her, noticing the cuts, bruises, uniforms and weapons they bore. She noticed their faces, some contorted with rage, others with...some other emotion she couldn't quite place. At last, she seemed to come to a decision based on her observations. With surprising strength, Nefer grabbed the girl she called Ate by the head and twisted it until they made eye contact again. In a low voice, she asked her, "Are these people the ones you killed as an assassin for Phantom Task?"

The boy and girl both flinched at this declaration, apparently not expecting to hear this conversation. The girl's face hardened even more, becoming a mask of seriousness as she asked Nefer, "How did you know about that?"

Without batting an eye nor backing down, the girl confessed without a shred of shame, "The bag you left in the room the day you left, I had opened it up, planning to cut out holes in your bathing suits as revenge for leaving me like that. Then I found your story reports. And might I say, they were very poorly written."

The boy suppressed a chuckle, but cast a threatening eye at the men, daring them to come and interrupt the dramatic moment. But he relaxed slightly when he noticed that for some odd reason, all the men were giving the two girls their space, their eyes awaiting something expectingly. Something clicked in his mind, and he suppressed yet another laugh, but never taking his eyes off the men for a second.

"Anyways, don't worry about them. Come back with me! Back to our home in Hawaii! We can be a family again, just the two of us!" She tempted the girl.

"I can't, I...I killed these people! Do you know what that means? I robbed them of their life, their futures! And it wasn't because they wanted to kill me...well maybe it was...but I attacked them first! For no good reason except revenge! All the lies, all the deaths, I...I just want it all to end!" she whined, letting loose the tremendous despair she felt.

"Is that all that you want?" Nefer repeated, confirming the girl's wish. The girl nodded. "Alright then, I'll take on your sins."

"What? I can't let you do that! I'm the one who committed the murders, I'm the one who lied and deceived everybody for my own benefit! I'm the only one that has to be punished for my misdeeds."

This...resembles an event from long ago.

"No, you don't have to suffer, Ate, no Sever. And you can't stop me from doing this either!" She took up a fighting stance, protectively between the girl and the enrapt group of men. "I fought and won against you! I'm an adult, and I can make my own choices. And I choose to sacrifice myself and let you live! I don't want my beloved sister to die!"

"I"M NOT YOUR REAL SISTER!" she bellowed, her eyes a torrent tears. As if on cue, the rain stopped, almost like in respect for the girl's anguished confession. "I KILLED HER IN COLD BLOOD! I CAN STILL FEEL THE SHEER PLEASURE I FELT FROM SATIATING MY BLOOD-LUST BY BEATING HER OVER THE HEAD REPEATEDLY! I CAN STILL REMEMBER THE SMILE THAT CREPT OVER MY FACE; THAT IDOTIC, SADISTIC GLEE AS I LISTENED TO HER SCREAMS OF PAIN FADE TO SILENCE! EVERYTIME YOU SMILE AT ME, I FEEL THE GUILT FOR THAT MURDER WELL UP INSIDE OF ME! IT DRIVES ME TO DO THINGS, TERRIBLE THINGS TO EVERYONE AROUND ME! TO STEAL THE STRENGHTS OF EVERYONE AROUND ME! HOW CAN YOU SAY I DON'T HAVE TO SUFFER PUNISHMENT FOR THEM?"

"I don't know any other sister but you, Sever," Nefer said softly. "I don't know this person you killed, but it was certainly not my sister. She's crying right behind me."

"I'm not you're real sister," she pleaded, as if trying to make herself believe her own words. "I didn't even love you. It was just an order given to me."

The naked girl abandoned her stance to look at the anguished girl with tender eyes, looking more like the mature one regardless of their heights. The boy reacted by focusing his glare at the men, but noticed that they were at the peak of excitement. Something was coming, and he knew what it was, although he hated himself for letting it happen right in front of him.

"That's the biggest lie you've ever told ever, Sever. It hurts me that you have to tell it to yourself. But I know it's a lie. I read your stories. A lot of it was exaggerated, but the one thing that you never lied about was me. Even though you didn't pay much attention to me, I could feel just how much effort you spent transcribing those words in their entirety, to the best of your memory. I could feel just how important it was to you that you recorded what we said exactly every time we talked about something important. I know for a fact that you love me, just as much as I love you."

"Oh boy, here it comes," the boy muttered, covering his face with his hand. The men reacted by pushing over each other to see, not daring to get close enough to disrupt this wonderful encounter.

Nefer dragged the resisting Sever down to face level, Sever's tall body bent uncomfortably forward.

"Nefer, don't...This isn't the love I had for you..." she trailed off. Some of the men's faces grew crimson red as they watched the scene unfold with unflinching attention.

Nefer ignored the girls words and forced her tongue inside the other's mouth. For a second, Sever panicked, but was not able to escape the naked girl's firm grip. Eventually, she settled down and gave into her temptations, returning the naked girl's effort was as much as she received.

They spent an awkward 5 minutes communicating their love through their lips...without words, completely ignoring their current situation before coming up for air.

"That was...impulsive," Sever struggled to find words to describe the rush of emotion that had befallen her. She looked shell-shocked, both due the assertion of Nefer in front of her and her own surrender to her feelings. Nefer, on the other hand, wore a look of smug satisfaction, as if she had finally achieved her lifelong dream.

With a sly smile, she told Sever, "I've always wanted to do that with you. Ever since you helped me recover from the accident, even though we're both girls, even if you've never looked at me in that way; I've always thought that you were the one for me. You were the one person in the world I had to fight for to keep at my side. I've always dreamed of finally being able to make up for all that you did for me. It's why I enrolled into IS academy, so that I could fulfill that desire. Of course, you getting accepted too wasn't part of the plan, but when you got injured fighting that black IS, I thought 'This is my first chance to repay you. I don't have to depend on you anymore, now we can depend on each other.' After that, I could prove my maturity to you and confess my love."

"But..we're sisters," Sever protested weakly.

"Stop flip-flopping around," Nefer shushed her, a dainty but firm finger on Sever's lips to shut her up. "First, you're not my sister, now you are? Are we related only when it suits you? I know for a fact that we aren't blood related. And I know for a fact that I love you with all my heart, and that you love me too. So, it's ok to love each other, even like this. There are some States back home that recognize same-sex marriage, so there's a future waiting for this relationship! Don't just write off these feelings between us because that's what society thinks!"

She turned on her heel, facing the group of attackers. "Now, let's take care of this trouble and...go...back...home?"

The two girls, now outside of their personal reality, watched as the group faded one-by-one.

"It's not true forgiveness, but it seems that they've found fulfillment," the boy commented out of nowhere. The two girls' attention switched to the boy, sitting on a random gravestone.

"You're the malevolent cheater!" Sever gasped, pointing at him with an accusing finger. "What are you doing here?"

"At first, it was to wake you up from your dream, but it looks like Nefer, here, finished the job." At the mention of her name, the girl hid behind Sever, a reversal of the confident spirit she had moments ago. The boy pulled off his dark blue shirt and threw it to the naked girl, who accepted it after intense deliberation. Without his shirt, the girl's got a good look at his slim body, his firm abs, and the scars adorning his stomach, a mirror of Sever's.

"What do you mean 'my dream'?" Sever asked him, helping Nefer fit the tight shirt over her abundant talents.

"This world is a place for IS pilots about to die to fulfill their regrets," he informed them with an air of wistful experience. "I'm not too sure how, but this world is able to summon everything needed for a person to live out their last dream."

"How do you know this?" Sever demanded of the boy.

A lonely smile wormed its way onto his face, but his eyes were deep and hollow, an abyss of solitude.

"This...isn't my first time here. I told you I have a wife, remember? Well, that's a lie," he confessed. "We were never officially registered or married. You see, the girl I was engaged to was dying. She was an IS pilot, just like you two, but after a fight that she lost, she was left comatose and fatally injured. The day before she died, I had a dream. Surrounded by our friends and family, we finally tied the knot. I can still remember the dress she wore and the smile she had in that dream. Even though I still thought it was a dream, it was a dream I never wanted to leave.

"Within the dream, we went on our honeymoon. But just as soon as we were to consummate our love," the boy paused to allow the two girls to control their blushing faces upon hearing the word "consummate", "she told me what I told you. I don't know who told her in turn, but from the way she said it I could tell she was grateful for the chance to fulfill that dream. Then, I woke up from the dream, remembering everything."

"Wait, so you're a real person?" Sever gasped. "I thought you were just a figment of my imagination! Like an imaginary friend with his own will or something!"

"...I thought that too, Ate," the now timid girl added.

"Yep," the boy answered with a smile, the recent sadness in his voice masked by a natural-sounding tone.

"But, how?" Sever asked. "And why do you look like me?" Upon hearing that statement, a curious Nefer peeked out from behind her "sister", then with a gasp of surprise finally noticed the physical similarities between them.

"Ahh, you realized it," the boy dryly observed. "Well, that's not important right now."

His eyes narrowed, an aura of calm seriousness emanating from his voice. "You see, the two of you are standing on the precipice of death. Both of you have sustained fatal injuries. You're about to die," he explained in an emotionless monotone. "So it's my job to make sure you both pass on without regret, so that you can happily move on to the next life. If I didn't do this, to do what I can, I'm sure that my wife would hate me. So, let's get started." He wiped a tear from hie eyes, clapped his hands and pointed to the mausoleum.

"Sever, I've been watching you for a while. And I think that there is no real quick fix to your turmoil. You're the type of person who hides their negativity with a mask of positive emotions that you didn't really have, unless you're with Nefer. It's why the others stay away from you, and the only people who do hang out with you are the ones that have either met the real you via Nefer or the real you via battle. But now, it's time to face your negative emotions, starting with the root cause."

"The kids I killed? Back during my training?" She whispered with fear. Nefer gave her a supportive squeeze around her belly.

"Yes, but this is something you have to deal with alone. Nefer and I can push you in, but you have to decide whether or not you can accept these sins and move on. If not, you're doomed to wander this world forever with no sense of closure. That sleep I woke you up from? That's not death, that's giving up. And that won't happen, not while I'm still here."

"Why do I need to move on, then?" She pleaded, not liking the idea of forcing acceptance of her sins so easily.

"Because, it's the right thing to do," Nefer said with absolute certainty. The girl's eyes sparkled with inspiration.

"There it is! That's the look my wife gave me in the dream, when she explained it all to me!" the boy excitedly exclaimed. "Nefer, what happened exactly?"

"That was the last piece to Nirvana," she answered, as if in a trance. "In order to understand, one must do two things: fulfill their desires and realize their death. Once you do those, then you can ascend into the next life."

"Then why? Why do I remember? Why did everyone else forget it but I remember? Why did I have to deal with her death by myself?" He cried, shouting at the girl with repressed emotion.

"It was her final bit of selfishness," Sever said, biting her lip in shame.

"What?" the boy asked, desperate for an explanation.

"She...she's just like me, isn't she?" she started, "She just wanted to fulfill her own desires, not caring about who it might hurt. But, when she saw the most important person to her, it made her realize that it wasn't about her own happiness. It was about the happiness of those who would live on, the ones still with a future.

"I just wanted to fade away with my sins into the ether of nothingness, but seeing Nefer and having her support made me realize that all that will do is cause trouble for her soul in turn. If she found out that I had all this sin and didn't do anything about it, she would hate me."

"But I found out," Nefer interrupted, "And invaded your consciousness, although I did find out about your past even before this. You really should take care of your things more."

"Sorry," she apologized, hitting herself with a fist and sticking out her tongue.

"I still don't see why you keep trying to pull that off, it's just not you," the boy teased her with a groan.

"Agreed," Nefer said with an understanding nod.

"Geez, now I'm getting bullied by the two of you," Sever pouted.

"Alright, enough of this, let's get back on track," the boy cut in. "Sever, are you ready?"

"...Yes," she stated with full confidence. Under their watchful eyes, they watched as Sever entered the wrecked mausoleum, still dripping rain from the storm earlier. They watched as she opened the coffins, one by one, but could not see her reactions nor her voice as she took upon each sin. She spent time with the contents of each coffin, seeming to converse with whatever was inside. But she hesitated with the last coffin. She mustered her resolve and opened the lid.

From that last lid emerged an angel, her light obliterating the wrecked rubble of the mausoleum. Her radiance cleansed the field of graves, leveling the world into scorched earth. With her soul unburdened, the girl called Sever took the angel's hand and ascended into the infinite sky.

The girl walked over to the spot where Sever left this world, faced the boy and closed her eyes..

"You know," she started talking spontaneously, "I was never really that shy of a person. I just wanted to be with Sever, ever since she first started taking care of me. I always knew in the back of my mind that she was the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, so I wanted to become someone she depended on. I wanted to be equal to her so that I could love her and have her love me. But it seems I'm always following her," she shrugged.

"But what I don't get is you," she continued. "Where did you come from? What are you going to do? Where are you going to go? Will you die too, along with Sever and I?" she asked the boy.

In response, the boy said nothing, instead keeping his eyes firmly locked onto Nefer's.

"You aren't dying then?" she clarified, receiving a slight nod in confirmation from the boy. "If you can return back to the living, please promise me one thing."

Once again, he nodded, keeping his face stern and serious.

"My body isn't dead yet, I can tell. Somehow, it's getting medical treatment from somewhere. It should be ok, although part of the treatment involves losing the nano-machines X injected me with. The point is that when I was stabbed, I regained control of my own will for an instant that lasted forever. I remember being completely lucid and knowing that I was about to die. So I mixed my mind with the fragments of Sever's, creating an entirely new personality within that body. I'd like to think of it as our child," she confessed with a blush. "So please, guardian of Sever, take care of Sever and my child. Her name is the same as mine, so that she may inherit our family fortune."

The boy placed his hand on his heart, a voiceless promise to watch over the girl. Satisfied with the action, the girl called Nefer expanded her own angel wings, ascending to the next life.

"Good bye, Nefer...No, that was a name Sever made up. Good bye, Natalie Fairs," the boy called after her.

With the two girls gone, the frame holding up the dream-like reality corroded. Starting from the horizon, large chunks of sky and land fell "down" in bite-sized pieces. The boy dashed to the center of the field, the exact location of the mausoleum. He reached out and grabbed an invisible "something", which glowed blood red as he clasped his hand around it. He took a peek at the object, then burst into maniacal laughter as the world shattered around him.

* * *

><p>It surprised X how long it took to actually complete the experiment, but the important thing is that it was a success. After the 5 hours it took to decompose Sever's body to the organs he needed, he took another hour just setting up the physical connections from the girl's implants to the Valkyrie Unity control box. On top of that, it took another 2 hours to copy what he needed from Sever's brain, but the outcome was that he had a theoretically perfectly working version of the unit, capable of reaching Level 3. With the data recorded, he took the host unit back to his quarters, but not before rousing Madoka from her sleep.<p>

"Madoka," he called through the door, "I've finished with the preparations. The leader is coming down here from HQ, so clean up the receiving room." Without waiting for confirmation, he left the doorway just as Madoka threw her alarm clock at that door. With a loud bang, the clock smashed into the door, making yet another similar marking on the back. Luckily, this was made out of metal, the innards of her previous clock repaired and installed in a leftover ammo box, made by one of her overzealous admirers. The disruption triggered a mechanism within it, causing a mechanical voice to state, "5:30 PM". With a groan, Madoka rolled out of bed, her sleep schedule completely derailed. Normally,she would tell X to do it himself, but he had mentioned the leader was coming. If She was coming, then X was probably making the final touches to the system with the IS specialist's help. With the rest of the team recovering the ruined Silvario Gospel, she was left alone to do the chores to make the villa presentable for the leader. So in order to be prepared for situations where its augmented strength would be useful, she slipped on her IS pilot suit (a bikini) underneath her sweat pants and jacket. She plucked off the badge on her uniform that served as her IS standby mode, and pocketed it into her jacket before making her way to the receiving room.

Upon arriving, she threw open the heavy wooden doors. Immediately, her heart sank into her gut. The room was an absolute mess. There were shards of glass everywhere, along with an odd liquid that corroded the carpets and rugs, exposing the concrete foundation of the room.

"How the hell did X do this?" She wondered aloud. "All he needed to do was download her brain, what else did he do to her? Ah well, whatever, where is the wet/dry vacuum? I think it's over here in the closet."

She carefully crossed the room, avoiding the pools of still corroding liquid. She opened the door, grabbed the vacuum handle that was handed to her, dragged the vacuum out and then closed the door.

Wait...

She opened the door again, only to be knocked unconscious by a double fisted hammer. One of her last sights was a horrible looking thing, covered with hair and dangling freely. Her other last sight was a familiar face she glimpsed as she fell to the floor. With the last of her energy, she muttered a final thought before resuming the rest X had interrupted: "When did Sever become a boy?"

* * *

><p>The boy lunged forward after realizing what he had done. With an awkward dive, he scooped up the shocked girl before she hit her head on the concrete. He gently laid her down on a non-corroded section of carpet, then took stock of his situation.<p>

With a burst of light, he exploded into being. The force of his entrance caused the glass tube he appeared in to explode, sending shards and liquid in all directions with a loud BANG! Conscious of the sound, he clumsily stumbled on unfamiliar legs into the closest door. He realized that it was a utility closet and jumped on a shelf. Luckily, he hid himself away just in time to avoid being seen by the newcomer. He overheard the girl speak aloud, thinking it was probably to her companion. He grabbed the closest thing he could find to a weapon, but was so shocked when the door opened that he thrust it out in front of him without thinking. Luckily again, the person who opened it didn't even realize his surprised reaction. He got a good glimpse of her face, noting the tired-looking bags under her eyes, but more importantly the fact that she was alone. He got ready to ambush the girl while she cleaned, but was again surprised when she opened the door again. His graceful descent was replaced with an abrupt drop, smashing his hands onto the girls' head.

After hesitating a moment, he stole the girl's sweats and jacket, drawing the pants tightly over his waist. Luckily for him and his manhood, the sweats were tight on his larger body, and when drawn kept him secure in _that_ way. He searched in the closet and found a long enough sheet to cover the now bikini-clad girl, unconscious on the floor. He left the messed-up room and wandered the halls of the empty house. Keeping close to the wall and keeping an alert ear out for suspicious noises, he methodically peeked into every room. He noticed that some rooms were used and some were not, so he skipped the unused rooms and diligently looked through the others. This took a very short time as he seemed to be looking for a rather sizable object. Room after room he searched, but to no avail. Until he reached another set of heavy wooden doors. His sense of direction told him he was far away from the other double door room, so this might be another room of importance. He propped his ear to the door in an effort to hear inside, but the doors betrayed no sound to the outside. There was a high probability of enemies within, so he tried an experiment.

"...Deep Purple," he murmured quietly, focusing on his mental picture of the IS. The tarnished emblem welded to his right hand began to glow, but immediately went ice cold, refusing his call.

"I knew it," he whispered to the emblem. He eyed it cautiously, accusing it by saying "You know what I am, don't you?"

As if hesitating, the emblem stayed cool for a second, before blazing with an intense heat only the boy could feel. He endured the flame of retribution, tears streaming from his eyes.

"I did the right thing," he ground out, but the emblem burned even harder, directly assaulting his nerves with imaginary heat. "The girl was all set to give up, but her sister and I helped her find peace. I just used the results of that peace to further my own selfish ambitions."

The emblem did not relent it's inflicted punishment on the boy. "Look, I made a promise to her sister, and I fully intend to keep that promise, but I also need to fulfill my goals as well. What can I do to secure your cooperation?"

The emblem ceased its burning, seemingly satisfied with his declaration of intent for keeping his promises. As if expending a great deal of effort, it eventually materialized a pair of red leg armor, shaped like jet thrusters. The leg parts of Aka Tsubaki.

"Thanks," he whispered. He experimentally moved around, finding the responses to be sluggish and not at all how he expected them to be. Not only that, but no matter how much he replicated the IS's former owner's movements, he couldn't get the AR nor the sensors to work. He was basically a normal human inside a clunky suit of armor, but at the very least he was partially protected. He was about to open the door, when it opened from the inside. He reflexively jumped back, the red legs making two loud clacks on the tiled hallway floor. From inside the doorway, X stared at the boy, eyes wide with astonishment.

"Sever? But you're dead..." he whispered. "Wait, you're definitely a boy. You can't be Sever. The hair is too short, and you have more muscle than her, but you definitely have the same features. Who, no, what are you?"

"I assure you, I'm quite human," the boy cautiously retorted as X quickly recovered his cool. "I require the Valkyrie Upper. Please leave or I will use force to obtain it."

"Never," the old man growled, standing protectively before him.

"Fine." The boy turned his back on the old man, but it was just a poorly coordinated feint so that he could build up the tension in his body needed to propel his heavy armored leg into the old man's torso with a CLANG!

CLANG?

Now it was the boy's turn to gawk in astonishment as the old man summoned a jet-black IS. It was an incredibly tall IS, easily twice the height of Deep Purple. The summoning caused it to open a hole in the roof, one that it widened with it's long, thick limbs. It sported two large cannons mounted on its backside via xtradimensional joints, as well as two wrist mounted cannons on each arm. Just like the boy's, the black IS the old man summoned had turbine shaped leg armor, but much wider and obviously purposed for maximum thrust. The IS materialized a helmet adorned with devil horns, numbers flashing in it's reflection. But the oddest change was a metal skin that covered the old man's body in a smooth coat of purple steel. His gnarled skin suddenly became smooth yet sinewy, his clothes disintegrated into powder. The transformation astounded the boy, but he was distracted by six ominously glowing purple auras from the barrels of each cannon, all pointed directly at him.

With a mighty push, he jumped down the hallway and tucked himself into a roll, narrowly dodging the barrage of optical weaponry that burned a hole through the wall. He quickly righted himself just in time to see the black IS take flight. He heard the whirr of a jet engine's ignition scream as the IS slowly rose into the air. He felt a twinge of danger, and rolled out of the way to reduced a direct hit from through the roof to a glancing blow that charred his armor. He could smell the stench of molten slag from his leg armor, the legs themselves seared with the high temperature cause by the shot. Enduring the pain through gritted teeth, he flew through the villa, making abrupt and random turns every so often to try to confuse the hovering IS. Eventually, somehow he reached the front door, only to be stopped with a hand around his throat. He struggled fruitlessly against the IS's exponentially greater grip strength. He kicked with all his might, but his IS could not generate anymore strength. He hung limply from the overextended arm, the IS using the last of its energy to maintain it's low altitude so that the boy wouldn't get strangled to death by its weight.

"Who are you?" a mechanical, but familiar voice asked the boy.

"...Technically, I'm Sever," he choked out, earning him an IS finger flick to the face that blackened his eyes like a punch. Tears of blood ran down his eye, the boy hoped it came from a healable wound.

"Real answers, please," the mechanical voice threatened him. "Who are you, why do you look like Sever, and why do you want the Valkyrie Upper?"

The boy shrugged his shoulders in defeat, then pointed to his neck. The old man reached out with his other hand and grabbed the boy bodily by the torso, allowing him to breath but restricting his freedom even more. The boy took a bunch of experimental deep breaths, before hacking out a plume of blood.

"Biologically, genetically, I'm the same as Sever. All the way down to the last scrap of DNA," he explained between hacking coughs. If you feel like you need to call me something else, then try Kail," he sneered, although the effect was dampened by the blood all over his face.

"Kail..." the mechanical voice sounded out, "Why are you here? Why do you want the Valkyrie Upper?"

"Honestly, I don't think I need to tell you that, freak," he retorted with newfound energy.

The black IS responded by squeezing tighter. The boy's eyes bulged in pain as he fought to keep his stomach from being squished.

"And what makes you think you have a choice?" the voice asked the boy.

"Because I'm here," a stern, yet feminine voice spoke behind him. Dressed in a skimpy string bikini, a Japanese woman with long black hair stood behind the gigantic black IS holding nothing but an IS training katana. With a short yell, she leapt at the IS, stabbing the sword into the elbow of the arm holding the boy. The black IS released the boy, who crumpled to the ground in relief, his red legs disappearing into ether. With the boy safely out of its clutches, the woman abandoned the sword in favor of hoisting the fallen boy, carrying him in her strong arms. The black IS extracted the sword from its joint, then released a cloud of black particles. The particles congregated around the damaged part, coalescing around the damaged circuitry and repairing it like a wound. With the repair finished, the black IS charged the pair with thundering footsteps. It reached out a giant hand, clutching at the two.

Suddenly, a pair of white and red bolts from the sky interrupted the black IS's charge, lifting it high into the sky. The pair on the ground sought shelter under a nearby tree as the two bolts squared off against the black IS. Focusing his eyes, the boy could see that the two bolts were actually IS. One was a white IS he had never seen before, but the red one had the same exact legs as he used.

"They're late," his rescuer muttered in Japanese. "They should have scouted the perimeter by now."

"Are you Orimura Chifuyu?" the boy weakly asked, using formal Japanese.

In answer, she flicked his head lightly. "Orimura-sensei to you, brat," she admonished him. "You're definitely not Sever, but our instrumentation identifies you as Sever. Care to explain?"

"As I mentioned while you were standing behind that black IS, I'm genetically the same as your Sever, all the way to my DNA. But I'm not her, she's dead, I've taken her place in this reality."

"This reality?" she questioned him.

"Yes. This reality," he whispered, before finally succumbing to the lethargy of blood loss.

High in the sky, the red and white IS moved in tandem, effortlessly dancing around the barrage of laser fire directed at the two. However, they were kept from advancing due to the sheer number of shots the black IS was able to release.

"We're getting nowhere fast, Ichika!" the red IS called out.

"How are you holding up, Houki?" Ichika in the white IS called back.

"Dodging is easy, but I can't advance without taking a few hits."

"Then let me take those hits."

"Wait a minute, Ichika, are you sure you have the energy to do it?"

"It's fine, just recharge me afterwards."

"Understood." With that, they retreated a fair distance away. The black IS's barrage spread out just a tad more, giving Houki an instant more of time to send an attack right back. She slashed her sword into empty air, creating a large wave of power that accelerated toward the black IS. The energy wave cut through everything it met, but dissipated harmlessly against the black IS's guard. However, it caused a lull in the barrage of power, a full 2 seconds the pair used to set up their strategy. Little knobs on her IS rotated and large pink blades of light folded out of her arm and back guards. She rotated her body so that it pointed straight at the black IS. She placed her arms at her sides, while the two shoulder guards came together to form a on her back. Her IS had shifted forms, changing from a vaguely humanoid shape to one reminiscent of a jet, an image reinforced by her jet engine leg armor.

Ichika placed his feet into two little cavities created by her back guards in wing position, as if designed for this special purpose. He held up his left hand and called out, "Reiraku Byakuya!" A translucent green round shield appeared on his left arm, expanding to create a translucent wall in front of the two. The sword in his right hand opened, exposing a blade the glowed with power.

Now recovered, the black IS resumed its full barrage, this time adding to the mix two fully charged back cannon blasts, each as big as a tree trunk. But just like Houki's earlier energy wave, the attacks all simply dissipated after hitting the shield.

"Let's go Houki!" Ichika yelled.

"Roger!" Houki replied.

Like a thunderbolt, the two charged the black IS at the speed of sound. Ichika's glowing sword etched a trail of light through the sky, ending at the black IS's arms held up in guard position.

"A single flash of light, cutting all in its path," a male voice directly behind the black IS chanted. The black IS attempted to turn to face the voice, but some malfunction caused it to refuse the action

"A single roar of sound, the thunder that follows the light," a female voice responded to the male voice. The three were bombarded with a wave of sound, like a thunderclap. The sonic boom they had created by breaking the sound barrier had finally caught up with them. The two IS didn't look bothered by it, probably muting the sound input since they knew it was coming, but the black IS took the full brunt of the wave of sound. The IS reverberated violently with the sound, finally causing it to seperate into six cleanly cut parts: a bisected torso and a pair of bisected arms. The six pieces dropped into the ocean below with an eery screch.

"Double Arts: Fulmine Presto!" the two voices harmonized, Ichika jumping off Houki's back to allow her to right herself. With a sly grin, Ichika shot his particle cannon behind him, detonating it with the tip of his glowing sword. Like a balloon of energy, it popped, scattering embers of light in all directions followed by the roar of an explosion.

"Hey Ichika," Houki nudged Ichika with a tap on the shoulder, "The explosion is a bit cliché, don't you think? Not only that, but you had to add it yourself. Doesn't that make you feel kinda lame?"

"Well," Ichika admitted embarrassedly, I just thought that with a name like 'Fulmine Vivace', it needed to have a cool explosion at the end."

Houki shrugged her shoulders dismissively, before she was reminded of a question that had been burning inside her since the time Ichika made it up, "Exactly what does 'Fulmine Vivace' mean? I know 'Presto' means is a quick tempo, but what's a 'Fulmine'?"

"Well, 'fulmine' means lightning," Ichika explained with an excited smirk. "You see, when I was thinking up this attack, I remembered Rin saying it had to have a killer name. So I tried to follow a theme both of us could use. The 'Double Arts' phrase was something I'd wanted to say ever since the Inter-class tournament, and since your moves use 'Dances', I thought that our moves would use 'Tempos' as its theme. Since the words for 'tempos' were all Italian, I did a quick search on the AR for a good term for my part of the attack and found 'fulminate', lightning. I can't wait to think of more of these!"

He stole a glance at his partner to see what kind of expression she would have on her face after his passionate explanation. He was saddened to see that Houki was looking at the far-off sunset, rather than at him. He couldn't see it, but camouflaged by the setting sun's rays, Houki's cheeks flushed red. She kept mumbling words that Ichika couldn't hear completely, but he did hear her repeat over and over again in a giddy whisper "_Our_ moves...more...he wants to fight together more!"

"Oy, Houki," Ichika complained, putting his hand on her shoulder to pull her around to face him. "Are you even listening to me?"

With their faces centimeters apart, the girl in the red IS timidly looked up into Orimura's disappointed face. The red from her cheeks immediately flooded the rest of her face and she screamed. Simultaneously, she slapped him with the full force of her IS, sending him plummeting into the ocean.

"Kyahh!" she screamed. "Stupid Ichika!"

Surprised, but not really hurt by the reaction, Ichika allowed his IS to lazily drift into the ocean, thinking a quick swim would feel nice on his tired body. He splashed down into the cold surf, allowing the gentle motion of the ocean to massage his tired body. He wondered why he was nursing a punch to the face and rocking in the ocean, rather than relaxing on the shore back at the resort.

* * *

><p>After the fight with the unmanned Silvario Gospel, Orimura Chifuyu, Ichika's instructor and older sister, requested both his and Houki's presence in the room that doubled as the makeshift command center for the aforementioned combat operation. Inside, Yamada Maya, their deputy instructor, awaited them. It had previously been both swept for bugs and soundproofed before the conversion with the help of portable shields, so it was also the perfect place to hold a private conversation between the four of them.<p>

"To get you up to speed," Orimura-sensei (as she liked to be called) started the briefing, "After we confirmed the deactivation of the Silvario Gospel unit, we received a communique from US Special Forces, taking responsibility for the incident and informing us that they will be responsible for the recovery of the rampaging IS. As we had no reason to refuse, we accepted their statement at face value. However, 15 minutes ago, we received another communique from the United States informing us that their communication network was hacked by an outside source and not to trust recent contact. This was told to me by a trusted friend back in the states, so I have no reason to doubt its validity.

"We believe that the original request as well as the recent communique were both perpetuated by an antagonistic third party. Therefore, we three will be sent as an advance squad to determine both the capability and the intention of this third party."

"Orimura-sensei," Ichika spoke up, "Why us?"

"Both of you pilot 4th-generation units, ones that use fold out armor to adapt to any situation. However, in addition to this fact, both of you have abilities that are vital to this mission.

"Shinonono," she called out, bringing the girl in question to attention, "your IS has the capability to both achieve Mach 1 as well as protect others from that speed with your shield. In addition, your Kenran Buto will recover IS shield energy, which will be necessary in foreign waters.

"Orimura," she called out, referring to her brother in formal tones, "your IS has the most offensive power of the group, but more importantly it is also the most adaptable due to its Double Ignition Boost, long and short range combat options. It is the best IS to have when facing the unknown. Under my command, you two will intercept the false recovery team the false US Special Forces are sending and disable their transport, as well as any combat capability they may have, including IS. We will be concurrently sending the other personal IS pilots, Bodewig, Dunois, Alcott, and Huang to recover Silvario Gospel for ourselves, with Bodewig in charge. Yamada will serve as mission control for both missions, please use her information wisely."

"So, exactly what are we going to do?" Houki pressed for more information.

"As I said, our primary mission is to intercept and disable the false recovery team en route from Hawaii. Yamada has charted the quickest interception point we could achieve using your speed form, Shinonono. After disabling the third party, the United States will send a team to arrest and interrogate them in order to find out how their network was hacked. We will follow the origin signal of their transport back home, and investigate. If possible, we will commence the secondary mission. You will be briefed before we attempt it. Have a short meal before we leave. Mission start in 30 minutes. Dismissed." With that, she turned around to study the map Yamada had displayed on the screen when Orimura-sensei mentioned it in her mission summary."

"Orimura-sensei, what exactly is the secondary mission?" Ichika prodded.

"You will be briefed should we attempt it. DISMISSED," Orimura-sensei repeated, emphasizing the dismissal.

With a shrug of his shoulders, Ichika turned around and led Houki to the resort's dining area.

Once they arrived at the dining hall, they asked the kitchen staff to make something easy to digest for them to eat, explaining that they had a few errands to take care of quickly. Although it wasn't a classified mission, Ichika felt uncomfortable with the thought of going into yet another combat operation, not after the injury he received in the previous one. It was a miracle that his IS's 2nd shift healed the injury so quickly, but the pain of being eviscerated through the stomach would remain with him forever.

As they were waiting for the food, the sliding door leading to the dining room slid powerfully open, bouncing off the hard rubber stop inserted in the door frame. A girl wearing a fox-like set of pajamas with sleeves much too long for her arms burst into the room, a look of worry and panic on her face. However, it changed to a look of hope as she saw the two, or more specifically Houki.

"Shinonono-san," the girl called in a serious tone, causing both Houki and Ichika to flinch in surprise. This girl, Nohotoke Honne, had a reputation amongst the students for not only being a gossipy busybody, but also for truncating everyone's name to a cuter version and sticking to that nickname. This was a completely out-of-character moment for her, last seen when she was reporting Ichika's unofficial sortie with Silvario Gospel to Orimura-sensei. "Shinonono-san, have you seen Seberu-san? Did she come back?" She asked Houki, pronouncing her target's name with some difficulty due to the unfamiliar sounds the name forced her to make.

"I'm sorry," Houki apologized. "I haven't even returned to the room yet. I have no idea where she is. Shouldn't she be sleeping anyways?"

"She isn't! Her room is still nice and clean, as if she hadn't set foot in there since yesterday!"

"Well, she probably had things to do," Ichika supplied, trying to comfort the now distressed-again girl.

"That's the problem!" Honne yelled, cracking the silence with a shrill voice. The disruption caused a gentle old lady to walking from the kitchen into the dining area to drop the tray she was carrying. The food on that tray fell to the floor, a mush of oatmeal, toast, fruit and juice, an American breakfast that was both easy to eat and filling. With a graceful, apologetic bow, the old lady stooped down to clean the mess. Her bow was matched by Honne's own quick but sincerely apologetic bow. Ichika crossed the room in order to assist the old lady, who thanked him with a smile. As he cleaned up, he over heard Honne explain the problem to Houki, her voice muffled due to crying into Houki's bosom.

"Yesterday, I confronted Sever about the fight you two had at the Boardwalk. I was worried about what she was getting herself into. She gave me a hug and tried to make me feel better, but she couldn't hide the look of pain and worry on her face after she ran away from her. I tried following her but she was just too fast for me. Houki-san, I think she's in trouble again. I can feel it."

She bawled out her tears within Houki's embrace. Ichika helped the old lady set two trays of breakfast, before walking over to Honne and setting a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"We'll find her, Nohotoke-san. I promise," Ichika swore. "Until then, you should rest. Attendance is at 8, so get a quick nap before reporting in. You don't want to show off those bags under your eyes," he teased, playfully poking the feature in question with his pinky.

Honne flinched away from the invasion of personal space, but she had a smile on her face as she did it. She tenderly rubbed her eyes, taking special care of the bags underneath. With an agreeable nod, she left for her room, but not before thanking Orimura, "Thank you so much, Orimu."

"I don't see how people can trust you so easily," Houki commented, looking at the satisfied girl in wonder. "A moment ago, she was crying her eyes out, the next she's relaxed and going to sleep. How'd you do it?"

"Well, as I pointed out, she had bags under her eyes. She'd probably been searching all night for her, although she probably took some time to look after me when I got injured as well," Ichika started off from an analytical viewpoint. Houki involuntarily flinched when Ichika mentioned the injury, remembering the circumstances behind it. Setting another gentle hand on Houki's shoulder, he continued, "but if there's something about me that makes people trust me so much, it's the fact that I've never broken a promise," he declared with a proud smile.

Houki looked into his face, her own smile slowly growing on her face, before it suddenly turned red and troubled. Knowing what was about to happen, Ichika let himself go limp as Houki grabbed his face and pointed it at the food.

"L-let's eat," she stuttered. "W-We're leaving in a-a f-few minutes." She started marching the two of them towards the table in robotically stiff steps.

"Yeah," Ichika said gently. "I know you're stressed, but let's do our best in the mission."

Houki relaxed ever so slightly, giving Ichika enough slack to pull out his face from her grip. With a bashful smile, Houki gratefully said, "Thanks, Ichika."

* * *

><p>"ICHIKA!" Houki screamed.<p>

Ichika reacted quickly to Houki's scream, a testament to the bond he shared with her. That call, coupled with his battle instincts, made him roll ever so slightly to the side, turning a lethal impalement through the chest into a glancing blow that ripped through his AD and IS armor like butter. A large purple and black drill exploded out of the water, clipping Ichika's right leg armor at the hip and grazing Ichika's side. Ichika screamed with augmented pain, as the physical injury reacted to his mental one. He floated in the water, paralyzed with shock as the purple drill fell back down for a second attack. At the last second, Houki swept in and recovered the white IS, its pilot frothing at the mouth due to exhaustion and panic.

At the water's surface, the drill ceased momentum and unfolded along the spiral etchings that identified it as a drill. It revealed the black IS Ichika and Houki had just destroyed, now with giant glowing wings on its back. Upon closer investigation, Houki noticed that 6 tethers of purple energy connected from the guns to the wings. It_ just lost its long-distance attacks, but something is familiar about this form, _Houki thought. She extended the blades on her feet and loosened her muscles. Luckily, her instincts were proven correct as the black IS flapped its wings, sending a barrage of purple pellets in a spread pattern towards the pair. Laden by Ichika's frozen body, Houki attempted to dodge the pellets, each as big as her head. The first wave was relatively easy to dodge, however the winged black IS flapped it's wings again, sending a second wave of projectiles in a closer spread. Houki attempted to fly out of the line of fire, but the bullets curved towards her, forcing her to block with the two blades on her feet. However, this unusual maneuver forced her to lose her orientation, causing her to not see the black IS's followup attack. It followed the second wave with an immediate third flap, the barrage of projectiles flying fast and straight directly towards Houki. Alarms blared and sensors wailed, but Houki could not handle the mire of dangers she had to watch out for. Her mind was in a fog of panic, her body a sitting duck for the black IS's final assault. At the very least, she was able to turn her body so that she could protect Ichika from the brunt of the blast.

"Ichika! I love you!" she confessed in anguish, preparing herself for the end. However, drowning out her confession was a simple order that cut through her fog of panic: "Houki! Kawarare!"

Like a practiced reaction, Houki gave the mental thought to prepare the weapon. A little knob on her left arm rotated, now looking like the hilt of a katana. However, she realized she had no hand with which to wield it. Wondering if her last words made it to the shell-shocked Ichika, she closed her eyes for the end, only to feel a slight tension on her left hand, followed by an explosion of epic proportions, louder than the sonic boom she and Ichika created during their Double Arts attack.

Opening her eyes, she saw a jet black Uchigane mass-produced unit in front of her, wielding Kawarare in its right hand, tethered to Houki's left. A wave of light purple energy flew towards the black IS, who guarded with its wings. The light purple energy collided with the dark, dispersing into drops of light upon impact.

"I'll take it from here, Shinonono," a familiar voice told Houki.

"Orimura-sensei?" Houki verified the originator of the voice.

Wearing a black string bikini, Orimura-sensei had equipped an IS and used Houki's sword to destroy the projectiles heading for her students. The Uchigane she used looked exactly like the type Houki used to use, except colored black. Holding Houki's glowing katana, Orimura-sensei reminded Houki of the old TV shows and anime she used to watch with Ichika before she moved away. She looked like a superhero, her sword blazing red with fury. Houki could feel the anger Orimura-sensei directed towards the black IS, it's darkness emanating from her body in waves.

"Shinonono, I need to borrow your katana. Charge it up to full, then break the connection," Orimura-sensei requested.

"Sensei, you'll only have one shot," Houki reminded her, fulfilling her request.

"It's all I'll need," Orimura-sensei responded, jettisoning a stabilizer and securing the blade on her back via the vacated BUS slot. Then she turned her head and looked directly into Houki's face, the hairs on her skin standing up straight as she felt the residual anger from much earlier when Orimura-sensei last got mad at her.

Houki's back involuntarily chilled as Orimura-sensei ordered in a cold voice now directed at her, "Sever is at these coordinates. Go there and wait for me to return. Make sure you protect both of them, Shinonono. Sever is now a student of our academy, no matter what Sever used to be before. Understood?"

A flash of numbers appeared in Houki's AR, instantly pulling up a map that highlighted the exact point the coordinates located. Houki gulped, then responded, "...Understood, Orimura-sensei."

"Kenran Buto," Houki muttered, encasing both Ichika and herself in a golden glow that recovered their AD and shield energy. She retreated to the coordinates specified by Orimura-sensei, laid down Ichika next to a Sever she almost didn't recognize for some strange reason, then turned her attention to the skies to watch the battle between the two black IS. Just in case, she set an active alarm that would alert her to any overt movement within 30 meters. As she watched Orimura-sensei equip the Uchigane's standard katana from xtradimensional space and charge the black IS, she remembered how they started this mission.

* * *

><p>After calling out their IS, Houki and Ichika awaited their sensei at the resort's waterfront. At the appointed time, Orimura-sensei, dressed in the resort's yukata arrived with four other IS in tow.<p>

The first was a blue IS with large leg armor, two huge guns at its waist, and four smaller guns adorning its back. The IS was piloted by a blond Englishwoman named Cecilia Alcott, a girl in both Ichika's and Houki's class. In fact, both she and Ichika had competed for the title of class representative early in the year, only for her to relinquish her seat to Ichika after she had won for some odd reason. Houki envied the girl's ability to sacrifice her accomplishment for the sake of another.

The second IS was a light purple beast, obviously built for close combat. It's arms and legs were sized appropriately for martial arts maneuvers and on its back were two large scimitars. Above its shoulders floated two balls, both of which Houki knew could shoot balls of compressed air in any direction without any leading of the barrel. Its pilot was a Chinese girl named Huang Ling Yin, nicknamed Rin by Ichika. She had also competed against Ichika, however it was due to her status as being the class representative for the other class in their year. However, their battle was cut short as they were interrupted by a hostile black IS that Houki couldn't find anywhere in the IS Academy database. The two worked together to dispatch the thing, then returned to normalcy in the blink of an eye. Houki envied how Rin's mere prescience relaxed Ichika. Houki had noticed that Ichika tended to stiffen when she got a chance to talk with him.

The third IS was another black IS, this one with large legs for anchoring itself to the ground at a moments notice. On its back were two little flaps, above it's shoulders two devices that held reels of energy rope. At its right shoulder was a rail gun with a massive barrel. Its pilot was the silver-haired Laura Bodewig from Germany. Former Special Forces before formally joining the Academy, she was a dangerous soldier that antagonized Ichika and attempted to severely injured the two first girls. However, she was taken over by...something that the academy would not disclose, only to be rescued by Ichika. Since then, the girl had calmed down considerably, however Houki still considered her dangerous. Out of all the girls in the school, she was the first to take initiative to having Ichika by forcing a kiss from him in front of the entire class. Houki wished she could have the courage to confess like that, but every time an opportunity arose, she would get flustered and do something violent. She envied Laura's ability to curb her violent tendencies for the sake of her beloved.

However the fourth IS was the one Houki considered the most dangerous. It wasn't due to the fact that the orange IS was a customized Rafael Revive II, armed to the teeth with a variety of weapons. It wasn't due to the armor that covered the entirety of the IS instead of just the extremities like most IS. It wasn't due to the beastly pile bunker that could reduce an IS AD to dangerously low levels in a single attack hidden underneath her energy shield. It was the pilot from France, the incredibly feminine Charlotte Dunois. Out of all the girls in the Academy, she was the one girl that Ichika spent the most time with, and the only one Ichika took a proactive. It would take only one guess to figure out what Houki both feared and envied Charlotte for.

With a salute, Laura started her mission, taking point in the four IS flight pattern to recover the Silvario Gospel they had just fought. Houki had shifted into her flight form, allowing Ichika to mount her properly. Afterwards, Orimura-sensei stepped lightly onto the IS, supported by Ichika. Houki extended the flight shield around the three of them which would protect them from the air drag when traveling at the speed of sound.

Once the two pilots finished their preparations, Orimura-sensei announced to the two, "Mission start!" At those words, Houki gradually accelerated in order not to disturb the other students with the sonic boom she would create after reaching Mach 1. At a safe distance away, she poured on the speed, allowing the route Yamada-sensei programmed earlier to take her to the intercept point.

"Orimura, Houki," Orimura-sensei called to the two of them from the safety of the windless shield, "I'd like you to come up with an attack that combines your sword (pointing at Ichika) with your speed (gently rubbing her heel into the small of Houki's back). Practice the timing in simulation mode, we'll give it a practical try as our initial assault on the transport. Once you come up with it, we'll discuss the best way to use it."

"Why do you want us to come up with something like that on the spot?" Houki asked her.

"We've got 4 hours to kill," explained Orimura-sensei, "and I was about to teach you combination attacks and timing after our beach classes anyways. I might as well give you an introduction while we're at it," she said with the knowing air of an experienced teacher.

"Even on a mission, you're still a teacher, huh, Chifuyu-nee?" Ichika teased her, earning him an uppercut from his sister.

"I'm still Orimura-sensei to you, brat," she admonished him.

"Not right now, Chifuyu-nee," Ichika declared. "I want to ask you as my sister, what is our secondary objective?"

Chifuyu remained silent, clearly struggling with the decision of crossing the line between teacher and sister. Seeing her troubled face, Ichika made her decision for her by accusing, "It has to do with Seberu's disappearance, huh?"

Like a rubber band snap, Chifuyu's face regained her earlier sternness, but she spoke with a soft tinge of emotion. "Before the completion of your earlier mission, I received notification of the destruction and self-dissolution of a prototype IS Sever had been piloting for us," Chifuyu explained, easily pronouncing Sever's name with the proper sounds.

"Is that the reason why she hardly ever socialized with anyone except Neferu-san?" Houki asked.

"Partially, but the other side of this, and the reason why we chose her as the prototype pilot was the fact that she was a deserter of the terrorist organization 'Phantom Task'."

"SHE'S A TERRORIST?" Houki yelled, losing her stability and almost sending the two Orimura siblings into the ocean.

"_Former_ terrorist, she works for me now," Chifuyu clarified, digging her heel painfully into Houki's back as punishment before continuing, "but she is also one of _my_ students.

"While we were at the beach, her sister Nefer was kidnapped by Phantom Task, probably while the three assassins attacked you and her. When she found out, she took the prototype and flew to their base. That was yesterday afternoon.

"Since the notification of the IS does not mean the death of the pilot, I wrote up this mission to rescue her with the highest level of confidentiality I had, only allowing Yamada-sensei as backup. In other words, this is an unofficial mission with me as the requestor and the confidentiality being enforced by me and not policy, understand?"

"Yes, ma'am," the other two chorused together, Houki's voice in a slightly more painful tone. In that same tone, Houki softly but coldly asked, "And should she be dead?"

Although Houki couldn't see it from her position, she could feel Ichika's face fall into an expression of depression, and she immediately wished she could take it back and think her question through just a little bit longer.

Unperturbed, Chifuyu answered, "Should she be dead, we shall recover her body, give her a proper burial, and then I will make whoever was responsible pay."

"Wow," Ichika muttered, almost speechless at his sister's promise of violence. "What if it was me instead of Sever?" he ventured cautiously.

A wave of bloodlust enveloped the two pilots as Chifuyu stared into the dark water below her moving at the speed of sound relative to her. "If it was you in Sever's position," she growled, "I would make it my life's duty to pollute the Earth's oceans with the blood of everyone even remotely connected to Phantom Task..." Her words faded to a dark silence.

"Well," Ichika declared after that uncomfortable silence, clapping his hands loudly, "I guess we should work on that combination attack, right Houki?"

"Y-yeah!" Houki agreed. Without confirmation from Chifuyu, no Orimura-sensei now, Ichika and Houki retreated to the IS AR simulator for them to plan out their attack. Before the simulator invaded her senses, Houki felt hot tears of guilt drop down onto the skin of her back. _There was more to this than she had admitted to,_ she thought.

* * *

><p>The winged black IS sent a fourth wave of projectiles towards Orimura-sensei, but the experienced warrior dodged them all without reducing her speed. Charging past the IS at the absolute threshold of force her body could take with stabilizers, Orimura-sensei rent the black IS in twain, creating a shower of sparks as the faintly glowing blade cut through the steel skin of the IS pilot's metal waist. She turned quickly in order to watch her opponent's reaction.<p>

The winged black IS released more of the dust, and Orimura-sensei watched as the dust congealed into a liquid and welded the two halves back together in the space of a second. The black IS charged a beam of purple energy, sending it towards Orimura-sensei, but she had already used the time to fly below the black IS and bisect it neatly up the middle, her momentum taking her above the black IS.

Again, Orimura-sensei watched as the the black dust repaired the black IS. She threaded the blade into a small loop on her waist, inserting it until only the handle stuck out, she allowed gravity to make her fall onto the black IS. However, the black IS wasn't going to give up without a fight. Its wings expanded to enormous proportions, and folded over the falling Orimura-sensei. The wings quickly compressed, shards of lightning crackling powerfully in every direction.

Houki drew in a sharp breath. This looked exactly like the attack that the Silvario Gospel had used to capture and knock out Cecilia. In fact, all of the attacks had been ones used by Silvario Gospel, but they were definitely a lot more powerful. She looked at her legs, the armor singed and slightly melted from using her leg blades to defend. Even though her Kenran Buto ability revived there is AD, it did not repair the IS itself. Houki could practically feel the pain Orimura-sensei was probably experiencing, the thought of it making her stomach turn. She turned her head to look at the unconscious Sever, lying on the ground wearing a pain expression.

"Why is she going through all of this for a terrorist?" she spat, angry at the unconscious Sever, but sworn to protect that very person.

* * *

><p>Arriving at the intercept point early, Orimura-sensei's team had hidden themselves behind a small outcropping on an island nearby. Orimura-sensei had taken the time to listen to Ichika's and Houki's explanation of their combination.<p>

"It's a good idea, and I particularly like the idea of weaponizing the sonic boom you'll create to disrupt the cut you'll make with that attack," she praised her students. "They say that a good blade will trick whatever you cut into thinking that nothing happened until it's too late, but when you swing it at Mach 1, every blade that holds up is a good blade. However, this attack will require superb timing and communication between the two of you.

"Orimura, you can't simply hold your sword out and expect Shinonono to fly precisely where you want to make the cut. The only way this will work is if you time an iaido attack perfectly as Houki passes by the target. If you simply hold the sword out without supporting yourself appropriately, you'll be dragged off your perch and get shredded by the air drag you'll be experiencing without the safety of Shinonono's shield. Your shield will be able to block out the air, but as a result your AD will be drained, making you a sitting duck for the enemies you missed, especially without Shinonono's support.

"Shinonono, although you don't have to fly precisely where you need to go, you still have to get close enough for Orimura to actually strike the target with the sword. He should be able to create a vacuum slash, but against steel it wouldn't even make a scratch. In addition, you must be able to time the sonic boom so that it is as close the target as possible, or the atmosphere will absorb the energy and the cut will just fuse again. The boom won't happen until you reach Mach 1, so make sure you time it properly."

"Sensei, if there are so many risks, why should we even practice this kind of attack? Wouldn't it be safer to engage normally?" Houki inquired.

"A properly executed ambush can end a battle in an instant, reducing the number of injured and casualties, resources used, and time passed. For people who want to win instead of fight, this is the most reliable strategy, its rewards far outweigh the risk," she answered.

"And we want to win, not fight, right?" Ichika asked her.

"For now, yes." She smiled an evil smile that the two pilots couldn't see. "But if I find out something I didn't want to find out..."

She was interrupted by a chirp in her ear. Yamada-sensei reported over the mic, "Target identified as a US transport helicopter: CH-147 Chinook II. Serial Number...registered but reported as destroyed in battle. It's a modified twin-rotor Chinook capable of subsonic speed when coupled with IS technology, and even able to use optical and sensor camouflage. It evaded detection until I got lucky and barely noticed it on a live view from a satellite. Judging from your current position, three minutes to visual contact, heading West, North-West. So far, there has been no course correction, however satellites show that the helicopter is armed with heavy artillery, enough to rip apart your IS in seconds. Sensei, I recommend aborting the mission. Do you concur? Over."

"One moment, over," Orimura-sensei addressed Yamada-sensei. Talking to the other two, she informed them, "Orimura, Shinonono, this is one of those times where we need to win. You both heard Yamada-sensei's analysis of the situation. Chances are as soon as we get in range, they will open fire. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they knew of our current location and are getting closer to us purposefully. A normal approach won't work in this situation, before you fight, you'll have to slow down and that will give them enough time to lock on and destroy us. After all, these are people talented enough to steal US equipment and falsify their status in official records. I wouldn't be surprised if they were mercenaries or other professional soldiers masquerading as US forces.

"The most efficient way to deal with them is the attack you two just came up with, Double Arts: Fulmine Presto. The question is: Do you two feel confident enough to perform it? Do you two think this mission is worth the risk I want you to take?"

Houki hesitated in answering, something Orimura-sensei figured was going to happen, judging from her reaction to her admittance of Sever's former loyalties. Houki was a woman who abhorred lawbreakers, especially Phantom Task. Due to their influence, she was forced to move repeatedly so that Phantom task or any other country couldn't use her as a bargaining chip for her sister's compliance, the genius IS inventor Shinonono Tabane. Recently, she seemed to develop a good rapport with the objective, even helping her fight off attackers from her previous loyalty. But the idea that she used to propagate violence and evil for personal gain had shaken her trust in Sever.

However, Ichika was a different story. A long time ago, back when she was an ace IS pilot, Orimura Chifuyu was a name to be feared in the IS community. She had easily swept the first ever worldwide IS tournament, Italy's Mondo Grosso. But during the second tournament, right before the final match her brother Ichika had been kidnapped. With help from Germany, Chifuyu rescued her brother, but at the expense of throwing the match. Ichika had never forgiven himself for doing that, and upon learning he had the ability to use IS, trained each and every day to become someone with the strength to protect and rescue, just as he was so long ago.

With vigor and confidence, he drew his blade and readied his stance. "Yes," he declared. "I think Sever is worth the risk. Not only is she a relatively nice girl, but she's a student of the school and my friend. Of course, it doesn't hurt that I have complete faith in Houki that we can do this." He filled his smile with the same vigor and confidence in his stance, turning it towards Houki.

That did it, all of Houki's doubts were temporarily dissolved as her face colored. She turned away from Ichika's line of sight and mumbled, "Yes..."

"You heard them, Yamada-sensei," Orimura-sensei reported. "One minute to contact, shutting off radio contact. We will report back after the skirmish. Over."

Orimura-sensei and Ichika boarded Houki, who used the rock as a blast plate to get a decent push. After a minute, her sensors gave her visual confirmation as well as GPS sync with the Chinook. Calculating the amount of time it would take to intercept the target at its current speed and heading, Houki forwarded the data to Ichika. He responded with a set of two timers, an audio timer that counted down the start of the attack, followed by a visual one that would tell the both of them when to unleash their attack. Orimura-sensei was confident in her students that they would execute the attack perfectly, but she readied an iaido herself just in case, holding her hand near where that loop would've been.

"Aim for the rotor axles. With the speed we'll be moving at, your iaido will cover a lot of space, so we should be able to get both in one swipe. Should we miss, we'll turn around and try again after clearing their firing range. Understood?"

"Roger!" They yelled.

At that moment, the first timer went off, signaling Houki to take off at just under the speed of sound. The Chinook II had no time to react as two light blue streaks cut across the afternoon sky, severing the two blades keeping them aloft as well as one of the overhanging artillery barrels. At the same exact moment, the sonic boom exploded, causing everyone inside the helicopter ear ruptures, knocking them out immediately. The sheer pressure from the sound caused a wind to sweep out the unfortunate soldiers out the open bay doors. The only one not affected was the pilot, who wore both a pressure-resistant suit as well as protective earmuffs, saving him from the terrible fate of the soldiers. However, without the rotors, the Chinook II lost its lift and crashed into the ocean, the pilot bailing out at the last second with a parachute.

After slowing down to view their handiwork, Orimura-sensei clasped a miserable palm to her forehead. "I was never too good at physics," she admitted coolly. "I guess I underestimated it."

She turned to Houki, "I guess the timing can be a little more forgiving."

"Understood," she accepted.

"Understood, nothing!" yelled Ichika. "We just killed, like, 20 people on that helicopter. How could the both of you just casually discuss that devastation like that?"

"Because they were terrorists," Houki explained.

"They were human beings!" Ichika argued.

"Who were armed to the teeth and probably antagonistic, especially if they belong to Phantom Task," Houki spat.

Ichika wasn't convinced with that argument, and so turned to his sister. "Chifuyu-nee, please tell me that you feel sorry for those lives we took..."

Orimura-sensei didn't respond to his request, not even bothering to correct him on the way he referred to her. Instead, she tapped Houki's shoulder with the flat of the blade she had summoned. Understanding the message, Houki steered the three to the drop zone of the pilot they saw bail out, all to the Ichika's pleading cries of "Chifuyu-nee? Please answer me!"

* * *

><p>The condensed purple ball of light suddenly exploded into a giant ball of pale blue light. It took a while, but Houki's sensor could faintly register Orimura-sensei's roar: "Iaido: Infinite Stroke". Orimura-sensei had waited until gravity had brought her into close combat range. However, the winged black IS had executed attack sooner, encasing Orimura-sensei and putting her under extreme air pressure. Her bones creaking with pain, she somehow found the strength to unleash the first cut, which released the pressure immediately. She continued her attack of multiple slashes, each as fast the first, ending by sheathing the sword back in the loop, the handle sticking out just enough for her to grab. With her long reach and feminine flexibility, within a fraction of a second she had created a sphere of blade afterimages, one that effectively diced her opponent into cubes an inch wide. Without the guns to feed them with energy, the wings evaporated into sparkles of light. However, the black dust was already healing the cubes, so Orimura-sensei performed one final move. With a flip to get her in proper position, she drew Kawarare from her back and sliced upwards. The formerly-winged black IS diced into cubes and the black dust that accompanied it was usurped in a column of light purple energy. Falling into the cool ocean like her brother, Orimura-sensei watched as the wave of light immolated the black IS, reducing it to flecks of carbon and other trace elements.<p>

* * *

><p>At Ichika's insistence, he and Houki had gathered every member of the helicopter's payload, consisting of people who were obviously soldiers of some kind, and a few who looked more like the belonged in a laboratory. Unfortunately, through luck of the devil, only a few showed signs of life. The others were allowed to rest at sea, accompanied by a few words of apology from a teary Ichika.<p>

Houki watched from afar on that little island they had waited for the Chinook II as she guarded Orimura-sensei and the pilot. Orimura-sensei was interrogating the pilot, though afraid was very cooperative with her.

"What was your mission?" she asked him, a young man of about 27.

"We were to recover an IS. We were told to expect opposition from the academy, so we armed the transport. I guess it didn't work too well," he shrugged.

"For normal people, yes, but these are my proud students, the cream of my crop." Houki beamed with satisfaction at hearing that little tidbit.

"Now, I'm looking for a girl. She's tall, wearing a blue swimsuit with a bust much too big for her, white short pants, and a purple IS, probably mismatched with a red bottom." Houki wondered what kind of IS, even a prototype, would use mismatched parts.

The pilot's eyes widened with fear and he curled into the fetal position. He rocked back and forth, reliving some trauma those words had triggered. "The ponytail ghost...ponytail ghost..." he muttered over and over again.

"Sounds like Sever," Houki commented, an assessment Orimura-sensei acknowledged with a nod.

"Where is the ghost?" She asked him, shaking him bodily.

"...Hawaii, the smallest island." He shivered on the ground, not able to calm himself down. Orimura-sensei draped him in her yukata, exposing her black bikini to the world. Houki felt a pang of jealousy looking at Orimura-sensei's mature figure, full hips, and perfect breasts.

"I've notified a rescue squad," she told him. "Sit tight."

She mounted Houki and they flew to where Ichika was waiting for them. Along the way, Orimura-sensei tapped her mic. "Yamada-sensei, you catch all that? Over."

"UN has been notified, they'll send someone ASAP. Over," Yamada-sensei reported.

"Where to now?" Ichika asked coldly, still not forgetting the pair of females dismissal of the loss of life they had done.

"Hawaii, the smallest island that looks like it could hold people. Apparently, we should be looking for a good amount of destruction. It's nice to know Sever didn't give up without a fight," Orimura-sensei informed him.

Ichika boarded Houki with heavy footsteps. "Ichika, are you ok?" Houki asked, worried for her friend.

"No, I don't know if I'll ever be ok," Ichika admitted. "But right now we have a friend to save and a mission to complete. Let's go."

As they flew, Ichika mentioned to Houki, "I have a few modifications to make to that attack. Most importantly, to make it nonlethal. Can we practice that?"

Together, both teacher and student accepted his request without hesistation.

* * *

><p>After fishing herself out of the water, Orimura-sensei did a final scan of the tiny island for life signatures. She found no life signs, however she did see a speck in the distance flying away from the island at great speed. She would've tailed her, but there was no way she could catch up to its pace in her IS. In addition, the IS didn't ping on her sensors. As far as they could tell, that speck didn't exist.<p>

"Yamada-sensei, bogey spotted approximately 100 km bearing North-North East. Can you track it? Over."

"Sensors show nothing in that area," Yamada-sensei reported. "Are you sure? Over."

"Yes, but the target has now out of visual range. Mission successful, we've recovered Sever, alive but injured. We'll be returning as soon as possible, please contact the doctor and have him ready to receive Sever in the Academy infirmary. Subject may have broken ribs, a crushed throat, and internal bleeding. Over."

She joined Houki and a now conscious Sever and Ichika at the coordinates she had given them. The three dismissed there is, and then they all relaxed on the ground. "Radio silence, everyone," Orimura-sensei ordered, removing her earpiece and setting her standby device, a small emblem on the ground in front of her. After hesitation, Ichika and Houki followed suit, removing their own devices, a white wristband and a pairs of bells respectively.

"Alright. Firstly, Ichika, Houki, who did we rescue?" Orimura started, but with an odd question to a couple of people who weren't expecting it.

"Some boy," Ichika responded. "Seberu-san...wait a boy?" Houki answered, then shifted to confusion as she gawked at the boy.

"Yeah, Houki. I mean, he looks like Sever, but it's most definitely not her," Ichika explained patiently.

"That's so mean!" Houki cried out, taking Ichika aback. "Just because she's flat, wearing different clothes, and cut her hair doesn't mean she a boy. Also, it's insulting to her to accuse her of not being Sever. She looks exactly like I remember her, except for the short hair and clothes."

"Ok, ok, enough," Orimura-sensei quelled the bickering. Turning her attention to their objective, she requested, "Please identify who you are."

With a smile, the person who's identity had been challenged pointed upwards. The three eyes followed the finger as it rotated downwards. It hooked the waist band of the sweats, pulling it down a few centimeters down.

Houki immediately fainted, murmuring, "Large, hairy, black..."

Orimura-sensei slapped her head in shame as Ichika chuckled heartily.

"Ok, maybe you are the real Sever. That felt like something she might do to get a laugh."

However, the boy was distracted by a different topic. He looked down to where his hooked finger was now pointing and complained, "Black? Oh crap, It's going to take forever to wash that ash out of there. How did it even get in there?"

"Focus," Orimura-sensei ordered, snapping her fingers at him to get his attention. "Who are you and where is Sever?"

"As I told you before, genetically I am identical to Sever, but I'm not her. You can call me Kail," he introduced himself to the two conscious parties. "It's a bit weird to admit out loud, but technically I'm a hermaphrodite. The difference between Sever and I is that she was raised as a girl, I was raised as a boy. This includes the surgery necessary to be treated as a normal girl or boy," he winked knowingly.

"Why does Houki recognize you as 'Sever' but I and Chifuyu-nee see you as someone else?" Ichika asked, unperturbed by Kail's casual admittence of being a genetic disorder. Orimura-sensei was about to reprimand her brother once again, but since this was an unofficial and unrecorded interrogation, she let it slide. She continued Ichika's question, "I do admit you have similar features to her, especially the ponytail, but why does the recognition only apply to Houki?"

"Honestly, I have no idea," Kail admitted, spreading his arms wide, just to contract them in pain as he exercised his wounded torso. "Theoretically, the both of you should have seen me as Sever as well."

"What do you mean?" Chifuyu pressed.

"In summary, I took over her existence. All your memories of her should have been replaced with me."

"Her existence?" Ichika echoed.

"Good grief, let me give you the short version," Kail offered. "You exist, I exist, and even that prudish girl over there exists," he declared, pointing at Ichika, himself, and the blushing unconscious Houki near them. "Our existence is like a placeholder in the universe," he held up his left hand in front of his face and balled it up. "If Sever is this hand, (he opened and closed his hand to draw attention to it) and if I'm this hand, (opening and closing the other hand) then what I did is basically this." He withdrew his left fist and replaced it with the right. "What should have happened is that whatever everyone remembers Sever doing, (left hand action) everyone will now remember me doing (right hand action). Except for you two apparently," he pointed at the two Orimura.

"Do you know why?" Chifuyu asked.

"Not a clue. I practice magic, not develop it."

"Magic?" Ichika inquired, drawn to that particular word.

"Magic. It's how I got here."

"Hmmm, let's put that aside for now. What's really important is why are you here? What's so important that you took over Sever's body to achieve?" Chifuyu asked with anticipation.

Kail smiled a dark smile. "To fight a war."

* * *

><p>Madoka headed North-North East as fast as her IS could take her. The ability of her IS, Silent Zephyr, was named after the IS itself. When active, it temporarily sealed the IS in a sphere that muted every sound the IS made perfectly. In addition it masked her energy signature and absorbed sensor waves, making her an untraceable wind on the battlefield. Unfortunately it had no effect on visible light, but it was an ability that complemented Madoka's own preferred battle tactic: the swift and silent preemptive strike. She could hold her own in a straight battle, but the less time she spent in battle, the more time she had to fulfill her more sensitive objectives. She was glad she had that ability, or else she would've been found out by the red IS and its white partner, circling the island looking for bogeys.<p>

She awoke in a daze, not able to recall what had caused her to take a nap so suddenly, nor why she had stripped down to her bikini, nor even why she decided to sleep in the receiving room. Whatever had happened, she was glad the badge that served as her IS's standby mode had happened to fall into her cleavage. That was an invaluable, irreplaceable artifact she was sure both the boss and Techie T would shout at her for. She finally remembered that there was an intruder in the complex, and with the entire force out to retrieve Silvario Gospel, only she and X were available to guard the Valkyrie Upper. As she headed towards X's room to warn him, she was suddenly buffeted by the shockwave of a massive energy blast, followed by a fleeing red mass that she couldn't see properly. she dashed to X's room, finding the Valkyrie Upper hidden in the closet. Looking up, she saw that X had activated both the DG cells that allowed him to recover from damage and Valkyrie Upper on himself. In order to give Madoka a chance to escape, X had sacrificed his humanity so that Madoka could protect the Valkyrie Upper. She immediately activated her IS and its ability, giving her a scant 5 minutes to make off with the machine.

Shortly after clearing the island, she heard a sonic boom echo sound through the atmosphere. Turning around, she watched as X was cut into six pieces and fell into the ocean. Figuring that a first shift wasn't enough and that X had already sacrificed his humanity, she activated Level 3 of the Upper, forcing X's IS to undergo second shift. She watched as X's black IS pierced the surface of the water in the form of a giant drill, before unfolding itself to reveal a pair of gigantic purple wings, similar to the Silvario Gospel's 2nd shift. With that last action, she flew in a straight line, hours tediously passing by before an encrypted signal told her she had invaded Phantom Task airspace. Her long travel over, she allowed the signal to guide her blindly to the ground. Now that the completed Valkyrie Upper was safely in Phantom Tasks hands, the next part of their plan could commence. With the push of a button, Phantom Task could create a sizable army of 2nd shift IS, ready to take over the world by War.

* * *

><p>In a certain clock tower in a certain part of the world, a young man carried a stack of books to the top. He wore a large robe, hemmed at the feet to prevent him from tripping. His face was hidden by the oversized hood, casting a shadow not event he brightest light would penetrate. The room inside the tower had been converted to a library at the whim of the current clock-keeper. She was an older lady, her nationality long erased by the countless wrinkles age had imbued upon her. She sat upon an old wicker chair, reading a book. She offhandedly pointed at a clearing on a faraway table.<p>

"They go over there," she said in a voice befitting such an old woman. The man, aged about 17, set the books down in the appointed location and walked up to the woman.

"Trace on," he muttered, a crystal ball appearing in his hands. The woman placed her hands over the ball and concentrated. Within the ball, she scryed a certain man with a ponytail, however she could not determine his location, nor his surroundings. It appeared he was talking, however, she couldn't determine what was being said.

"He finally emerged, Shirou," the old woman reported.

"Understood, Master," the boy bowed. As he rose, the oversized hood fell off, exposing his face to the air. His skin was pale, but his hair was a fiery red. Cut relatively short, it clumped together to form little pseudo-spikes randomly in his hair, but the shape still confirmed to his head shape. His eyes were a pale amber, however they reflected the true state of his being: empty.

He turned on his heel and marched mechanically away, a puppet that gave the woman a small sense of companionship. She turned to the crystal ball, which withered away to nothing without the presence of its conjurer. She returned to her chair, then gazed at the night sky from her little abode through a tiny window in the roof. She raised an old, gnarled hand towards the only star in her view and closed her hand around it.

A small TV near her chair flickered on. A certain woman appeared on that TV. She wore a simple dress with long sleeves, and had two little plastic flaps on her head that resembled bunny ears. At any other time, she would've worn a smile of purposeful aloofness, her voice tinged with a strange accent. However, the woman's voice that came from the TV's speaker was cold and serious.

"We've done it," she reported. "I've verified two ways to cause the hatching of the cores. We have five recorded samples, and we're ready to attempt to initialize a mass hatching event using the first. The second has proven to be time inefficient, but more powerful in the long run. We've selected a small control group to attempt to accelerate the slower method, however we do not foresee any successful acceleration working."

"How many cores have we made?" the old woman asked her contact.

"As of now, 467 have been distributed to the nations of the world."

"We need more. Continue making cores until we reach our target number."

"Master, I'm sorry," apologized the woman in the TV, "but I can't possibly fabricate anymore of these. I'm running out of mana."

"In that case, I'll have to find someone else to make it. You're sister is of the same blood, she'll do nicely." The old woman snapped her fingers, a pale pink light glowing through the TV woman's right sleeve.

"No, no, wait, I can squeeze some more out. Don't brand Houki, too," she begged. She concentrated on her arm, grabbing an invisible "something" that glowed blood red as she wrapped her fingers around it.

"See," she panted, clearly exhausted from the effort, "I can still go on."

"See that you do, the more cores we hatch the more powerful our wish can be," the old woman told her, glaring fiercely at the woman. The TV woman closed her rabbit ear accessories in fear and cringed. The old woman turned off the TV and resumed her task of grasping the faint star from the sky.

With a wistful smile, she declared "It's time to start this dimension's first ever Holy Grail War."

* * *

><p>Story End<p>

* * *

><p>Author's Note:<p>

Holy God, this was the hardest thing I ever had to write. I'd rather write thesis and lab reports than another conclusion! Well, I spent a little more time with those things than I did with this, admittedly.

Basically, after I took over this project, I turned it into a writing experiment to see if I could pull off NaNoWriMo sometime. I learned that while I can craft a story, my character development sucks, I can't write an epiphany, and I can't write an OC. Also, 1st person is easy to write but hard to do well, especially if from the OC's perspective. 3rd person is a bit harder, but I can get more viewpoints and give the characters equal screen time. Unfortunately, the sequel I have planned requires one, so I'll take some time to research how to do it properly. It'll definitely help with NaNoWriMo.

Let's see, global thanks to everyone who read it, more thanks to those who reviewed it, even more thanks to those who praised me, and gigantic hugs for those who rightfully criticized it with a fair eye. If you have the time, I'd like anyone to comment on the last two chapters themselves. Whether its good, whether its bad, but most importantly if I wrote anybody out of character.

Stay tuned for the sequel, which will hopefully be better written then the first chapters of this one :P

Haha, just realized it how it sounded, but the sequel won't be using the OC as a main protagonist. It will center around Ichika and his Harem.

The OC will be a supporting protagonist, mainly because I still need to get some practice writing OC protagonists and I don't want to let go of the idea I got in my head. I'm gonna aim to get this done before November, cause once NaNoWriMo hits my schedule will slip something fierce.


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